The Rise of Zorro
by HeroesFan3
Summary: Set 7 years after The Legend of Zorro, Alejandro, Elena, and Joaquin, are all back to face Zorro's most challenging adversary yet. With a little help from some new friends, they'll fight to defeat an infamous terrorist organization bent on destruction.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Zorro series, other than the ones created by myself. This is intended to continue the story of Alejandro de la Vega, from the Antonio Banderas Zorro film series. It is also meant to be a conclusion. I hope you enjoy it.**  
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* * *

_1857_

_As the Vigilance Committee spreads across the nation, a terrorist group called "La Liga" uses every opportunity to disrupt peace, and spread mayhem and panic in the streets while also financially profiting from the uproar of terror..._

* * *

**THE RISE OF ZORRO**

* * *

In the Territory of Utah, or what is now known as Nevada, in an area not far from the route to California, there stood a lovely hacienda, belonging to the wealthy Villanueva family. Luis, his wife, Miranda, and their two children, Benjamin, and Juanita, all sat at the dining table, enjoying their evening meal.

Luis had always been a family man. He loved his wife and children deeply, and had achieved most of his wealth in the Gold Rush in California. Miranda, who had always stuck by her husband, was beautiful, and also pregnant with another child. They were the quintessential example of the "perfect family".

The awkward silence that often came with their time at dinner was interrupted this particular night, when one of the two house guards came into the room.

"Sir, my man and I have just apprehended an intruder on the premises". The guard reported.

"Excuse me." Luis calmly told his family.

Without another word, he rose from his chair, and followed the guard out of the room.

Outside the hacienda, there stood another guard, next to a hooded, masked man, who sat on his knees with his hands bound behind his back.

"Good evening, Señor Villanueva". The masked man said.

Luis stood there with suspicion in his eyes as the first guard rejoined the second. Both of the guards stood on opposite sides of the intruder in case of an attempt to flee.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"You needn't know who I am." The masked man replied.

"Do I know you?"

"I would very much doubt it."

"Well, then. Maybe I shall take off your mask and see for myself who you are."

As Luis reached for the mask, the hooded man spoke.

"Unless you'd prefer to lose that hand, I wouldn't try it, my friend."

Luis then hesitated before drawing his hand back.

"Even if I don't find out who you are now, I will when the authorities arrive." Luis said. "What were you doing here?"

"Simple," the hooded man answered. "A home invasion."

Out of nowhere, two blades pierced straight through the two guards. They writhed in pain, before the swords were removed, and they're lifeless bodies fell to the ground. Standing there, holding the swords, was a very large man with a black mask of his own.

The man on his knees, then rose, with his hands, apparently free from the bonds.

Luis, realizing this was a set up, thought about his wife and children. He turned back towards the house, and ran to the dining room where he found his family bound by their hands and feet to their chairs against the wall. They were being guarded by another hooded masked man.

At that same instant, the other hooded masked man, who is obviously the leader, and the big guy walked into the dining room as well.

"I apologize for the abrupt intrusion, Mr. Villanueva, but we're on a rather tight schedule" the leader taunted.

"Tell me who you are!" Luis demanded.

"Perhaps this will give you an idea." the leader said, lifting up his sleeve.

On his wrist was the letter L burned into his flesh. It was obviously meant as some sort of symbol.

"La Liga?" Luis said with a new found fear.

None of the hooded men responded.

Noticing the frightened look on his family's faces, Luis knew what he had to do. He quickly grabbed a sword out of a sheath that was sitting in a case on the dining room mantle next to him.

"Get out of my house." he demanded.

The hooded leader laughed, and took out his own sword. The big guy, and the other hooded man as well as the wife and children all watched Luis pathetically lose in a sword fight. He tried to hold his own, but the hooded leader obviously had skills far beyond what Luis could ever hope to comprehend.

The hooded leader, slashed Luis' hand, causing him to drop his sword. It slid across the room, and towards the big guy, who picked it up.

Luis then had the wind knocked out of him, when he was hit in the stomach by the handle of the hooded leader's sword. He fell to his knees, and looked at his wife and children, who looked more than afraid by now.

The big guy walked over to Luis, and grabbed his head by his hair, and held the sword to his throat.

"Do what you want to me, just don't hurt my family." Luis begged.

"I'm sorry, Señor." the hooded leader said. "This plan didn't include survivors."

Knowing what was about to happen, Luis held his arm out to his wife, and said:

"Miranda!" before getting his throat slit by the big guy.

His wife, and children screamed at the horrible sight. Luis dropped to the floor, bleeding profusely.

The hooded leader then turned to his comrades.

"Grab the valuables." he said.

After a few minutes of raiding the house, and filling two huge sacks with valuable china, and jewelry, the three men emerged from the house, leaving the family in there, still bound.

As they were attaching the sacks to the saddles of their horses, the thieves turned to see 4 other men walking out of the nearby fruit cellar, where apparently Luis had hidden much of his golden wealth.

"Good work, men." the leader said. "Destroy all traces."

The men all mounted their horses, before one of them shot a bullet down at the ground, which ignited two trails of gunpowder.

"California!" The leader shouted.

The thieves then all turned their horses, and rode off into the night, on their way to California, as the trails of gunpowder behind them traveled their way up to the hacienda and fruit cellar before subsequently creating a huge explosion, which demolished both of them.


	2. Chapter 2

At a bar, just a few miles outside of San Mateo County, men cheered and toasted to the various things that were transpiring around them. In the midst of all this commotion, there sat a man in his mid 40s, drinking away at several shots of whiskey.

The man's name, Miguel Chavez. He appeared to be more inebriated than he actually was; a common ploy he used when entering bars. You see, Miguel was more or less a professional thief, and had been for the past 12 years since his wife's passing. You could almost tell by looking at his graying brown hair, and brown eyes that he had been through a lot.

As he downed another shot of alcohol, the men cheered him on, and congratulated him. On the table sat various bills of money, and change from the people betting on him.

"12 shots in a row. How do you do it, amigo?" a bar patron said.

"Well, you see, gentlemen. It's all about concentration, and focus." Miguel said. "Alcohol will only control you, if you let it."

He stood up, and at that moment, deliberately fell to the side, near a man's pocket. Dangling out of the pocket was an expensive looking pocket watch.

"Whoa. Hold on there. Don't want to pass out, just yet." another bar patron said.

Miguel quickly swiped the pocket watch and placed it into his own pocket as the men helped him to his feet. Evidently, no one was aware of what had just happened.

"Bartender. Another shot." Miguel said, slamming his fist to the bar table, twice.

Outside, next to a few barrels and a horse trough, stood three figures. Two boys and a girl. All were teens. For the last 15 minutes, the boys had been trying to woo the girl, and for the sake of subterfuge, she was playing along.

"Where are you from, bonita?" one of the boys asked.

"Oh, from here, and there." the girl answered. "I'm from wherever you want me to be."

"You are very beautiful." the other boy said.

"Thank you, sweetheart." the girl responded. "You know, you two are some of the nicest boys I have ever met."

The boys smiled at each other, as they liked the sound of that. They had thought she was interested in them, but the fact of the matter was, 15 year old Anamaria Chavez had taken the money from their pockets at least ten minutes ago.

Ana, as she was regularly called, was indeed very beautiful. She had olive skin flowed perfectly with her long black hair. The boys could barely keep themselves from staring into her dark green eyes.

"Would you like me to buy you something to drink?" one of the boys asked.

Ana's eye's grew wide.

"No. No, thank you." she said quickly. "The drinks shall be on me."

The three of them walked back into the bar, and back into the loud cheering of Miguel's drinking.

As they passed by to find a table, Ana shot Miguel, her father, a look. They've obviously done this before.

While everyone's attention was on Ana and the boys while they were walking into the bar, Miguel attempted to steal a wallet out of someone's pocket.

Unfortunately, another man saw this attempt.

"Thief! He's a thief!" the man screamed.

All eyes were now on Miguel.

"Thief?" Another man questioned.

Instinctively, a couple of guys checked their pockets and realized that a few of their possessions had been missing as well. They turned to Miguel, whose pockets looked relatively full.

"You bastard!" one man yelled.

A complete bar fight then started. A man punched Miguel in the face, and he retaliated with a few punches of his own. Somehow, his fighting was more sophisticated than most. 3 more men ganged up on him, but surprisingly, he was doing well with them.

The sound of glasses smashing filled the room, and the screaming in the bar got a lot louder.

Upstairs, in one of the rooms, there was the sound of a woman, moaning in ecstasy. Under the covers in a bed, lay a young man, 17 years of age, with a bargirl.

The boy's name is Santiago Chavez. Miguel's son, and Ana's older brother. Apparently he had wanted to be recreational tonight, while his family conducted their usual thieving.

Santiago was handsome, and sarcastic. He had a sort of young Alejandro flair to his attitude. His lean, yet muscled body was complimented by his brown eyes and medium long, dark curly hair.

As he kissed the beautiful bargirl, who was clearly enjoying herself, Santiago turned his head when he heard the sound of the commotion downstairs.

Realizing what was going on, he decided it was time to split. He sprang up, off of the girl, and put his pants on.

"Hey!" the girl said. "¿Qué te pasa?" (**What's wrong?**)

As Santiago was putting his shirt on, she smiled at the bargirl.

"Disculpa, mi amor. Necesito que ir." (**Excuse me, darling. I have to go now.**) he said.

"Espera, no me pagaste." (**Wait! You haven't paid me yet.**) the girl said back.

But, it was too late. Santiago, had already shut the door.

He bolted downstairs, to see his father fighting many bar patrons.

Just for the sake of thrills, Santiago joined in, punching a few guys, distracting from the real reason the fight started.

Once he had time, Santiago took out a small sack, and emptied the money from the table into it.

"Time to go, Dad." he shouted to his father.

Miguel nodded, as the father and son pushed their way through the crowd of men like football players, knocking several of them down in the process.

Turning to his sister at the table as he ran, Santiago shouted:

"Ana! Vámonos!"

Ana got up, and ran out of the bar with her father and brother, as many of the men got to their feet to chase after them.

Outside, where the horses were tied to a log, Santiago quickly untied all of their ropes, and slapped many of them so that they would begin running away.

Ana, Miguel, and Santiago then climbed on top of their respective horses, and rode away.

When the men from the bar got outside, they found that all of their horses had run off into numerous directions. They all cursed amongst each other as they saw the Chavez family ride off; the hooves of the horses leaving trails of dust behind them.

Miguel cheered at Santiago's tactical genius as the three of them rode into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

That very same evening, not far from San Francisco, another crime had taken place. Four bandits bolted across the dirt. One of them carried in his arms, a tithing vase that was full of money. The men had stolen it from Padre Felipe's church less than 15 minutes ago.

They had arrived, and threatened the priest at knife point. The minute they heard someone ring the bell to summon Zorro, they high-tailed it out of there.

Running desperately to get away from the vicinity of the church, the men stopped to pant once they believed they had gotten a far enough distance from it.

"Ha, ha. Gentlemen." one of the bandit's panted. "Mission accomplished."

The other men joined him in a labored chuckle.

"Now what do we do?" another bandit asked.

"Well, now, we'll steal some horses, and go over to the next town, and do the same thing all over again." the first man answered.

The other men nodded.

"We'll be as famous as the Murrieta brothers!" one of the bandits declared.

"But, we must move quickly. Zorro will soon be here." the first man said.

The bandits turned to flee again, but one stood in his tracks, looking off into the distance, in fear.

"What is it?" one man asked.

The frozen bandit pointed in the direction he was staring. Standing about 25 meters away from the men was a shadowed figure. They couldn't make heads or tails who it was, but they just hoped it wasn't who they thought.

"It's him! It's Zorro!" One of the men said in fear.

"Calm down, my friend." the leader said. "There is only one of him and 4 of us."

"No." another bandit said. "There _is_ more than one"

"What?"

The men turned around, and saw another Zorro standing about the same length of feet away as the other Zorro.

This confused the men. Both Zorros looked the same, except this one held two barking dogs by their leashes.

"Dios Mio" (**Oh, my God**) another bandit said.

Suddenly, the first Zorro they had seen pulled out a rifle, and shot at the bandits. The shot missed, but the men were now terrified. They'd heard stories about Zorro before, but they never knew that he'd kill a man just for stealing some money.

The Zorro holding the dogs let the beasts loose. The houds then proceeded to tackle one of the bandits and began attempting to maul him.

The Zorro with the rifle took a couple more shots, but missed again.

One of the bandits tried to run off, but the Zorro who had let the dogs loose, ran over to him, and kicked him to the ground.

The Zorro with the rifle shot once again, and once again missed. He cursed at himself when he realized he had no more shells in his rifle.

As he reached into his pocket, to pull out more, he heard someone whistle.

He turned his head to his right, and suddenly, his head was met with the butt of his rifle. He fell to the floor, holding his head in agony.

Now, there holding the rifle, stood a 3rd Zorro. The _real_ Zorro. Otherwise known to us as Alejandro de la Vega. The other two had been merely vigilantes posing as him.

While a bandit tried to force the dogs off of him, two of them rose to face Zorro.

Alejandro took out his sword and proceeded to fight the men with his usual graceful, mastery of swordsmanship. The men never stood a chance. It was Zorro they were fighting after all.

One of the bandits saw an opening, and slashed Alejandro across his right arm with his sword. Alejandro was taken off guard for a moment, before retaliating the bandit's attack with a punch to the face.

They continued fighting until Alejandro noticed two open barrels on the wooden porch of the meat shop. When he saw an opportunity, he kicked the two men and they tripped on the steps of the porch and fell backwards, landing heads first into the barrels.

Alejandro smiled at his little trick before his attention turned to the man who was at the mercy of the two dogs. Alejandro whistled which surprisingly called the dogs toward him. Casually, he took out a rope, and tied the dogs to a wooden beam connected to the meat shop.

While the Zorro who had the rifle laid on the ground, unconscious, the one who had released the dogs noticed Alejandro, and began to run.

Alejandro sighed, and let out another whistle.

Out of nowhere, came his horse, Toronado.

Alejandro quickly hopped onto the horse's back, and traced off after the Zorro imposter.

The faux Zorro tried to run as fast as he could, but he couldn't escape Toronado's speed.

Alejandro pulled out his whip and shot it out, making it lasso around the fake Zorro's ankle. The imposter fell to the ground.

* * *

A few minutes later, Alejandro had tied up all of the men, the bandits, and the two fake Zorros.

He looked at them all in disappointment.

"Zorro! ¿Qué está haciendo usted compadre?" (**What are you doing?**) one of the fake Zorro's asked. "We were just trying to help."

"This is my job, amigo. And you really need to stop trying to do it for me. Otherwise, you will end up looking like him." Alejandro said, calmly while indicating the bandit who's face was bruised up from the dog attacks.

Speaking of the dogs, Alejandro stopped to pat one of them on the head, before hopping on Toronado's back, and riding off in the opposite direction of which he came.

After returning the tithing vase to the Padre, Alejandro returned home. Riding on Toronado's back, he went through a passage in a cave, and entered into a new and improved Zorro training circle, similar to the one Diego de la Vega had trained him in so many years ago.

Alejandro de la Vega had once been known as Alejandro Murrieta. He used to be a bandit, along with his brother, Joaquin, and their friend, Three-Fingered Jack. Both had been killed by Captain Harrison Love, and Alejandro swore revenge.

Don Diego de la Vega had decided to train Alejandro, under the condition that Alejandro help Diego take down his arch adversary, Don Rafael Montero. That was nearly 17 years ago, and Alejandro became de la Vega's successor to Zorro, as well as marrying Diego's daughter, Elena.

Thoughts of the past filled Alejandro's mind as he put Toronado into his stable, and fed him a treat before carrying on.

After changing back into his don clothes, Alejandro emerged from a secret passage way through the fire place. The brick wall that appeared seamless, separated and locked again like a trap door.

As he walked through the house, Alejandro felt a sharp pain in his arm from where he had been slashed with the sword. He could've tended to it now, but he decided against it, as he was too tired to worry about it.

"Tomorrow." He promised himself.

Before heading to bed, Alejandro peeked open the door to his son's room. Inside, in bed, lay the now 16 year old Joaquin de la Vega, who was looking more and more like his father each day.

Alejandro sighed in exhaustion, while feeling a sense of fruitlessness.

Perhaps he needed a break from being Zorro. Or perhaps he was just getting too old. Either way, just like most nights in the past few years, Alejandro told himself that he would worry about it "tomorrow".


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, in town, people were buying clothes, shopping for food, moving around donkeys and horses. Just another morning in California.

Amongst all of this, the Chavez family had split up before their walk into town, to be less conspicuous.

Santiago had gone over to the vendor's table, and snatched a couple of apples when no one was looking, and stuffed them into a sack he was carrying.

Miguel had planned on pickpocketing somebody, when something suddenly caught his eye.

On the wall outside of a bar across from him, Miguel saw a small wanted poster. He went over to it, and noticed that the likeness drawings on it were of him, and his children.

Without saying a word, Miguel nonchalantly ripped the poster off of the wall, and tore it to shreds.

* * *

At the de la Vega hacienda, the ever beautiful, Elena de la Vega, awoke from her slumber, to find herself alone in the bed for two.

A look of confusion went over her face.

"Alejandro?" she called.

No one answered.

She sighed, got out of bed, and put her robe on.

Elena didn't usually wake up alone in the morning, but when she did, she always knew where to find her husband.

Down in Zorro's training circle, Elena emerged from the fireplace trap door, where she found Alejandro sitting in a chair, tending to his sword wound from the night before.

"Good morning, Elena." Alejandro said without even looking up.

"Good morning, my love" Elena said, almost sarcastically.

Still not looking up, Alejandro continued wrapping the bandage around his arm.

"What happened last night, Alejandro?" Elena asked.

"What?" Alejandro asked, finally looking at her.

Walking over to him, she stared at his arm.

"Let me see." Elena said.

Alejandro unwrapped the bandage and revealed the cut the blade had made. It was still partially bleeding, but, it wasn't anything fatal.

"There were, uh, a couple of people wearing the mask of Zorro last night." Alejandro said.

"Again?" Elena asked.

"Yes."

Alejandro sighed, as Elena tenderly re-wrapped the field dressing.

"They had dogs this time." Alejandro added.

"Did the dogs do this to you?" Elena asked.

"No, no. It was a sword."

"Alejandro, you promised you would be more careful."

"Yes, I know, I know."

Elena got on her knees, so that she could look up at Alejandro.

"I do not know what I would do if anything were to happen to you." she said.

Alejandro reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand.

"Don't worry, Elena. Very soon, I think California will be able to survive without Zorro." Alejandro said.

Elena gave a small smile.

"The crime rate is dropping, and Felipe hardly rings the bell anymore." he added. "I will get to spend more time with my family."

They both stood up.

"But, what will become of Zorro?" Elena asked, playfully.

"He and his beautiful wife will have more and more children together, and watch them grow." Alejandro said, as if he were telling a story.

"And how many children will they have?"

"Hmm...I think ten would be a good starting number."

Elena giggled at the horrible joke, and smiled.

"What?" Alejandro asked. "What's funny?"

Elena shook her head.

"I love you." she said.

They kissed. And even though it had been years since their first one, the two lovers kissed with the same fire they had in that barn after their little sword fight 17 years ago.

When they broke their embrace, Elena turned to leave, before remembering something.

"Did you see Joaquin this morning?" she asked.

"Yes. I sent him off to school an hour ago." Alejandro answered.

* * *

Little did they know, that rather than go to school, Joaquin de le Vega had decided to have a walk about the town that day. Not that this was anything new. This was probably the 5th or 6th time he's decided to skip school.

Joaquin had changed a lot in the last 6 years. After finding out that his father was Zorro, he began training himself to be quick, scheming, and as adept in a sword fight as the fox himself.

He still held a childlike side to himself too. He still enjoyed slingshotting rocks at his teacher's butt during class.

Nonetheless, he had matured since we last saw him.

While walking through the clothing area, looking at something to maybe purchase as a gift for his mother, someone bumped into Joaquin.

"Whoa, whoa." he said. "Excuse me."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." the girl said.

Joaquin didn't recognize the girl. But we know who it is. Ana.

"That was my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going." she said. "I'm so clumsy."

Joaquin was mesmerized by how pretty this girl was. It was like being in a dream or something.

"That's...fine. It's okay." Joaquin said.

"Okay." Ana smiled at him.

There was an awkward moment of silence before de la Vega realized he was staring at her.

"Oh, uh, I'm Joaquin." Joaquin extended his hand.

Ana shook it.

"Hi, Joaquin." she said, still smiling, yet speaking with indifference in her voice.

Without saying another word, Ana turned and started to walk away.

"Hey, aren't you gonna tell me your name?" Joaquin called.

Ana, now several feet away, just turned around, and smiled at Joaquin before continuing off.

"Alright, then." Joaquin said to himself.

Something about that girl made Joaquin keep thinking about her, even though he didn't think he'd see her again.

Turning his thoughts to other things, Joaquin decided he was a little hungry, so he went over to a food vendor for some fruit.

"I'll have some grapes, and a couple of peaches, please." he said to the vendor lady.

When the lady gathered the food, Joaquin reached for his wallet, but couldn't find it. He checked his belt strap, then all of the pockets on his pants, and his shirt.

"I think I left my wallet-" He started to say before he realized something.

That girl had stolen his wallet!

He turned his head from one corner to the next until he saw Ana in the distance, still walking off.

"Hey!" he called.

Ana heard him, and turned to see him. As soon as her eyes met with his, she began running off.

"Hey!" Joaquin called before bolting after her.

There were too many people, and Ana was too fast. It was hard for Joaquin to keep track of her. He knew it was too good to be true. Who would have thought, this pretty, innocent looking girl would be a thief? But the thing about Ana was, is that that is exactly her game.

As she ran faster, Joaquin eventually ran out of breath, and stopped running. Upon looking around again, he could find no sign of Ana among the sea of people walking around.

Joaquin sighed.

As he gave up, and began to walk away, Ana went into an alley between two shops, where she met with her brother, and father.

"What do we got?" Santiago asked as Ana tossed the wallet into Miguel's hands.

"A lot." Ana answered.

Miguel searched through the wallet and found numerous wads of cash.

"Hmm. Nice work, Anamaria." he said.

"I thought so too. The kid looked pretty rich." Ana said.

Miguel pulled out of the wallet a small piece of paper that Joaquin had written on.

It said: "Property of Joaquin de la Vega."

Miguel tossed the wallet back to Ana, and she put in in her pocket.

"Look at this." Miguel said, indicating the piece of paper.

Ana and Santiago read it.

"Joaquin de la Vega. Do you know him?" Santiago asked.

"No, but I know of the name de la Vega." Miguel replied. "His father's a don. And you know what that means."

Miguel's children smiled.

"We'll follow him home, then go back later tonight." He added.

They nodded.

"Looks like we've found a place for our next heist, kids." Miguel said.


	5. Chapter 5

That night, after they had tied their horses to a tree a few miles away, the Chavez family hid under the bushes in the vicinity of the de la Vega hacienda.

It was late, around 1:30 in the morning. With their swords in sheaths connected to their belts, the three of them awaited the opportune moment to approach the house.

"Okay, so what now?" Santiago asked.

"They should be sleeping around this hour." Miguel replied.

"Then, what are we waiting for?" Ana questioned.

"Patience, children." Miguel said.

"What's the plan?" Santiago asked.

"Well, first, we're going to head in through one of the upstairs windows." Miguel said. "Then we'll search through all of the drawers. Clothes, money, jewelry. Whatever you see, take it. Understand?"

Ana and Santiago nodded.

"Okay. Let's go. Now." Miguel whispered.

Something suddenly caught Ana's eye.

"Wait." she said quietly, as she grabbed on to her brother and father's shirts. "What's that?"

She pointed to a cave that was adjacent to the hacienda.

"A cave." Santiago said. "Maybe they've hidden something in there."

"Perhaps. Let's check it out." Miguel said. "Good work, Ana."

The family slowly moved over to the cave and went inside. Surprisingly, it was pretty deep. Almost as if to hide something.

They traveled further down until they found stairs. They followed the steps downward, until they found themselves in a very strange looking, underground room.

"What is this place?" Ana asked.

Santiago shook his head at the magnitude of the room.

"I don't know." he said.

* * *

Inside of the hacienda, Alejandro de la Vega sat near the fireplace, reading a book in front of a warm fire.

It had been quite an uneventful evening for Alejandro. He had been staying awake just in case Father Felipe rang Zorro's bell to call him. After nearly falling asleep 3 times, he had decided to read a bit to keep himself busy while he waited.

Alejandro's attention was drawn away from the text, however, when he heard footsteps coming from upstairs.

The silhouette in the darkness, eventually revealed itself to be Joaquin as he stepped in front of the fireplace.

"Joaquin? What are you still doing awake?" Alejandro asked.

"I couldn't get to sleep." Joaquin replied.

Alejandro shut his book, and turned his full attention to his son.

"Could not sleep, hmm? I'm only trying to stay awake." Alejandro joked.

Joaquin half smiled.

"Well, why don't you go to bed, then?" he suggested.

"I have to be ready in case Felipe rings the bell."

"It's late, Dad. I'm pretty sure _Felipe's_ asleep right now."

Joaquin stood in silence for a few moments.

"So...Aren't you gonna ask me how my day went?" Joaquin asked.

"I was not planning to." Alejandro said. "You usually hate it when I do that."

"Well, it's a parent/child thing. You're supposed to ask how my day went, and I'm supposed to answer. You were so good at it before, why stop now?"

Alejandro was left confused. This was most unusual on Joaquin's part. But, he decided to play along.

"All right. How was your day, Joaquin? How was school?"

"It was fine. How was your day?"

"Fine."

"Great. Did, anything special in particular happen?" Joaquin asked.

This was weird. In the past few years, Joaquin and Alejandro hadn't had much more than small talk between each other. So, Joaquin's sudden interest in how Alejandro's day went, made it obvious that he was up to something.

"Why don't you tell me what's on your mind, son?" Alejandro asked.

Joaquin sighed.

"Well. Okay. See, it's just that, going out has probably gotten pretty tough on you lately, right? So, I was thinking about, you know, what we had discussed a little while ago-"

Before Joaquin could finish, Alejandro cut him off.

"No." he said.

"No?" Joaquin asked.

"We've talked about this before, Joaquin. You're not coming out at night to help me."

It was true. Ever since he'd found out his father's secret, Joaquin had been begging Alejandro to go out at night with him, and act as a sort of Zorro Jr. type sidekick. As to be expected, Alejandro thought the idea was preposterous.

"But, I can fight, Dad. You can at least let me try once." Joaquin suggested.

"I taught you to fight for when it is necessary. I won't have you purposely looking for trouble in hopes of getting a thrill."

"Just like you do all the time, right?"

Those words left Alejandro stumped.

"Come on, Dad. Let me try." Joaquin pressed.

"No, no more talking about it." Alejandro said. "That is the last I'll hear of this, you understand?"

* * *

Back in the cave, All of their eyes gazed across the gigantic room. In the center, there was a huge circular platform, that looked almost like a dueling arena.

"It looks like some sort of...training space." Miguel said, puzzled.

It took the Chavez family a moment before they remembered what they were here for.

"Do you see any gold?" Santiago asked.

They looked around, but saw nothing that looked like anything of real value. Until, Ana noticed a seemingly gold plated dresser with two handle locks on it.

"Hmm." Ana said to herself.

She walked over to the dresser, turned the handles, which unlocked the dresser like a door, and opened it.

To everyone's shock, sitting right there in the dresser, were 3 sets of black, cotton masks, that could be recognized by anyone.

Ana pulled one of the masks out of the dresser, and stared at it.

It suddenly became evident to the family that they were standing in the lair of the fox. The lair of Zorro.

"Don de la Vega is Zorro?" Miguel asked himself.

"Maybe we should just go." Santiago suggested.

"No, no, son. I've got a much better idea, now."

* * *

Back, inside the hacienda, Alejandro and Joaquin continued arguing.

"What happens when you can't fight anymore, huh?" Joaquin asked. "You know you're gonna have to let me fight someday."

"Perhaps." Alejandro said. "But _some_day is not _to_day!"

* * *

In the cave, Santiago heard a small whine. It sounded like a horse.

"What's that?" he asked.

He turned his head, and saw Toronado's head poke out of the darkness. This startled Santiago for a moment. Apparently, the light in the room didn't shine near Toronado's stable, so it made the black Andalusian quite hard to see.

"Hey, Dad, Ana. Look at this horse." Santiago said, as he reached out to pet Toronado.

But, before he could, the smart horse made a loud whinny, and stood up by his hind legs.

"Shh. Damn it!" Santiago cursed as he tried to calm the beast down.

Ana and Miguel looked at him in anger over the stupid choice he had made in attempting to touch the horse.

* * *

In the hacienda, while Joaquin and Alejandro continued arguing, they heard the loud whinny.

"But, what if, someone finds out who-" Joaquin started before hearing Toronado's whines.

"What is that horse doing?" Alejandro asked.

"I don't know. I'll go check him." Joaquin sighed.

On the mantel, he pushed a button, which made the seamless appearing bricks separate, making him a passage into the lair.

* * *

Inside the lair, the horse continued to make noise. Santiago kept trying to calm him down, but to no avail.

"Shut that thing up!" Miguel ordered.

Ana then heard foot steps coming down from the stairs opposite from the passage the family had came in.

"Someone's coming! We gotta get outta here!" Ana said.

"Okay, let's go!" Miguel said.

Santiago quit trying to console the horse, and began to leave with his family. There was just one problem. Ana realized that she had left the dresser open. Not to mention, she still had in her hand the mask of Zorro.

"Oh, no!" she said.

She quickly turned back, and put the mask back in its proper place before closing the dresser. Not even stopping to wait for her, her brother and father had already made their way out of the cave.

"Wait. Ana's still in there." Santiago said, before trying to turn back. But, he was stopped by his father.

"What are you doing?" Miguel asked.

"What do you mean? We have to get her out of there!"

"No! Ana can handle herself. We stick with the plan. We've got to get inside that house." Miguel insisted.

After staring for a brief moment, Santiago nodded his head.

Inside of the cave, Ana quickly whipped out her sword, and hid behind a wall near the dresser, and awaited the person walking down the stairs.

Once Joaquin got down to the training circle, he ran over to the raging Toronado, and finally got him to cease the whinnying.

"Shh. Calm down, boy. What'd you see?" Joaquin asked.

Behind the wall, Ana took in deep, quiet breaths.

* * *

Outside, Santiago stealthily climbed up the wall of the hacienda, while Miguel attempted to get into the house by unlocking one of the doors.

When he got to the front door, it was surprisingly unlocked. Perhaps because Alejandro would've needed a quick way to leave the house if Felipe had called for him.

* * *

In the training circle, Joaquin's eyes searched the whole room to find some sort of irregularity. Something had to have happened. Toronado wouldn't have just gone crazy over nothing.

As he paced the room, Joaquin noticed something odd about the dresser where his father kept Zorro's masks. It didn't look fully closed, and a small bit of the mask seeped through the drawer.

Ana winced to herself at the stupid mistake.

Joaquin reached for the dresser, before a blade slapped his hand. He jumped for a second, before he saw Ana step out of the shadow behind the wall, and point her sword at him.

Within a second, he recognized her. It was the girl from the marketplace who had stolen his wallet.

"You." he said in an accusatory tone.

"Hello again, Joaquin". Ana said with a smirk.

* * *

Outside, Miguel, slowly opened the door to the hacienda, and stepped inside. For a brief moment, he had forgotten that he was supposed to be stealthy, and shut the door in a normal manner. The sound was pretty loud.

Near the fireplace, Alejandro heard the door close, and turned his attention away from his book once more. He stood up, and walked slowly in the direction of the front door.

"Joaquin?" he called. "Is that you?"

He walked closer into the shadow, while all the while, Miguel barely so much as breathed.

* * *

Outside, Santiago had finally reached the top of the house, and climbed down to the balcony. With a deep breath, he slowly opened the door, and went inside the bedroom.

He stopped suddenly, when he noticed a figure, laying asleep in the bed. The moonlight cast a gaze on Elena de la Vega's angelic face. She looked stunning even as she slept. Santiago stared at her for a minute, admiring her beauty.

He didn't know what it was, but something about this woman seemed rather familiar to him. It was interesting. He felt warm, comforted, and somehow nostalgic. The look of peace on her face as she slept made Santiago feel a strange sort of sentimentality towards her.

* * *

Back in Zorro's training circle, Ana continued pointing her sword at Joaquin.

"What are you doing here? You come to give me my wallet back?" He asked sarcastically.

"Not exactly." Ana said.

"You know, you're pretty cute for a thief."

"They always are. With you men, it's all about the looks."

"So, what, you're here to take something else?"

"What makes you think I came here to steal anything?"

"So, you haven't taken anything?"

"...No."

"Oh, really? Maybe I should check."

Joaquin stepped closer to Ana, but she wouldn't back down. She still held the sword, ready to strike him down.

Joaquin glared at her before giving a soft smile.

"Hmm. Okay." he chuckled.

He turned, and drew a blade of his own out a sheath that was nearby.

"I guess I'll have to make you tell me the truth." he said.

"You could try." Ana said.

"Hmm." Joaquin scoffed. "This'll be fun."

The two of them took two light swipes at each other. Both of which were blocked. As their duel carried on, it became clear to Joaquin that Ana knew exactly what she was doing when it came to swordsmanship.

What surprised Joaquin even more was that Ana didn't seem to be too impressed by _his_ skills.

"You're right." Ana smiled. "This _will_ be fun."

She took another lunge at him.

* * *

Upstairs, in the master bedroom, Santiago still couldn't stop watching Elena sleep. He'd never even met this woman before, but he still felt a connection to her.

After a few more seconds, Santiago remembered his job, and began to slowly creep his way out of the room. He wasn't sure why his father had come up with such a stupid plan, but at the same time, he felt Miguel had his reasons.

Santiago slowly opened the door to leave, and prepared to walk out.

But, before he could, he felt the blade of a sword softly land on his shoulder.

"Leaving so soon?" a voice said.

Santiago turned his head sharply to see Elena, standing there, holding a sword to his throat.

* * *

Downstairs, Alejandro opened the front door, and peeked his head outside.

"Joaquin?" he called.

No answer.

Alejandro gave up, thinking that it was his fatigue that made him think he had heard something. He shut the door, and began to walk back towards the fireplace. Up from behind him, though, followed Miguel. Thinking that he might get the drop on him, Miguel slowly crept up closely to de la Vega.

But, being Zorro, and all, Alejandro could sense that he was being followed, and quickly turned, swiped Miguel's sword from its sheath, and threw Miguel to the ground in front of him.

"Easy. Easy, now." Miguel said, with a hand up as Alejandro held the blade to his throat.

"Who are you?" Alejandro demanded.

* * *

"Who are you?" Elena demanded.

"Please, Señora." Santiago said. "I mean you no harm."

"What are you doing here?" Elena asked.

"Don't be afraid. Just stay calm."

"What do you want?"

Santiago began to unsheathe his sword, as he was planning to yield. He wasn't about to pick a fight with Elena.

"Listen. I-I just...", he stuttered.

Before he could say another word, Elena attempted to slash at him with her blade. However, Santiago was able to swiftly unsheathe his sword, and block the attack.

"Señora, I don't want to fight you. Please." Santiago practically pleaded.

It was no use, though. A duel had begun. Much like Ana and Joaquin, Santiago was able to combat Elena with quite ease. After a few thrusts and parries, Santiago ducked as Elena tried to take a swipe at his head before blocking her swipe at his legs.

* * *

Downstairs, Miguel was still at the mercy of his own blade, that Alejandro held at his chin. Miguel could feel the warmth given off from the fireplace burning the bright, yellow flame to his left.

"I said, who are you?" Alejandro demanded.

"Chavez. Miguel Chavez." Miguel responded.

With his hands held up in capitulation, Miguel slowly rose to his feet.

"What do you want?" Alejandro asked.

"You, uh, might want to be putting down that sword first, friend." Miguel suggested.

Alejandro didn't back down.

"I think not, sir. Now you had better tell me who you are, before somebody gets hurt." Alejandro threatened.

This didn't scare Miguel in the slightest. He wasn't leaving until he got what he came for.

"Well, yes, but, you see." he said while slightly chuckling. "I'm in need of a bit of your assistance."

Alejandro still pointed the sword to the strange man. Ready to strike at the slightest motion. It was now obvious to Miguel that talking wasn't going to get Alejandro to lower his guard.

Luckily for Miguel, Alejandro's concentration was broken, as he peered up at the ceiling after hearing something that sounded like swords clashing, coming from upstairs. At the same moment that Alejandro had lifted his head, Miguel slapped the blade of the sword to get it out of his opponent's stabbing range, and grabbed the fire poker that had been on a rack next to the fire place.

With this new found "weapon", Miguel used this poker as a sword and engaged in a duel with Alejandro.

Both fighters were extremely skilled, but Alejandro was the one who was impressed. Miguel fought with nearly the dexterity of Zorro himself.


	6. Chapter 6

Basically, a battle royale began in the house. Upstairs, Elena dueled with Santiago, downstairs, Alejandro went blow to blow with Miguel, and in Zorro's circle, Ana and Joaquin fought each other. Each fighter was impressed with their opponent's level of skill. Evidently, someone had trained the Chavez family. There was no other logical explanation for Miguel's adeptness in swordplay when it came to dueling Alejandro.

In Zorro's circle, Ana kept Joaquin on his toes, as she swiped fiercely at him with her blade. Joaquin was mostly on the defensive, due to not really wanting to engage the girl.

"Wow. You're pretty good. Almost as well as a man." Joaquin said.

"Well then, I guess it's a good thing I'm not fighting a man." Ana said casually.

"And, what's that supposed to mean?" Joaquin asked.

Ana gave him a taunting smirk before continuing the fight. Joaquin jumped back for a moment.

"So, as long as you're trying to kill me, could you at least tell me your name?" he asked.

Ana assumed her fighting stance.

"Ana." she said. "My name's Ana."

* * *

Upstairs, Elena continued to try to sword fight Santiago, while he continued defending and blocking her attacks.

Elena had no idea why this stranger had broken in, and was not even attempting to attack her. She was the only one on the offense. Before long, their swords connected into a blade lock, with Elena's pushing against Santiago's.

"Look, just wait a moment. You have to listen to me." Santiago said.

"And, why should I do that?" Elena asked.

Santiago sighed. Elena clearly wasn't letting up on the lock of their swords.

"I'm really, really sorry." Santiago said.

"For what?"

With that, Santiago lightly punched Elena with his free hand, incapacitating her. The grip on her sword loosened a bit, and Santiago took this opportunity to swipe it from her.

Now, without a weapon, Elena stood at the mercy of the strange boy. Without warning, Santiago tossed both of the swords away from either of their reach. A move which confused Elena even more.

"Señora, I know what this might look like, but I'm not here to rob you." Santiago said.

Elena took in a deep breath.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Santiago Chavez. This might be difficult for you to understand, but I need your help."

"My help? With what?"

* * *

In the living room, Miguel, and Alejandro kept brawling. It quickly came to a point where Alejandro took a hard swipe at his opponent, which caused Miguel's fire poker to break in half.

Once again, Alejandro pointed the blade to Miguel, ready to stab at a moment's notice.

"Alright. I surrender." Miguel said, holding his hands up.

"Now, what are you doing here?" Alejandro demanded again.

"You're more skilled than I thought, Mr. de la Vega. But, then I suppose that's what you'd expect when fighting Zorro."

"What?" Alejandro couldn't believe it.

"That's right. I know who you are." Miguel smiled.

"How do you know? Who the hell are you?" Alejandro yelled.

"I've already told you, sir. The name's Miguel Chavez. Now, if you would be so kind as to lower your sword, I'd be more than happy to explain exactly what I'm doing here."

This left Alejandro confused. Was this guy serious?

* * *

In Zorro's training circle, Ana and Joaquin toyed around with each other over and over again. As the fighting progressed, they moved closer and closer over to Toronado's pin. Knowing that he had to end this fight fast, Joaquin took advantage of his surroundings. Ana was almost standing close enough. Just a few more inches, before...

"Toronado! Up, boy!" Joaquin shouted.

With that, the horse whinnied and stood on his hind legs. When he came back towards the ground, his frontal hooves knocked Ana's sword, out of her hands and down to the ground. Before she could reach for it, Joaquin kicked it away, and pointed his sword to her.

"Not fair. You cheated." Ana protested.

"Yeah, well..." was all Joaquin had to say to that. "You gonna come quietly?"

Ana sighed. After all, this was pretty much playing into their father's plan anyway, right?

"Sure." she said.

"After you." Joaquin said as they began to step up the stairs to the fireplace entrance.

All the while, Joaquin kept his sword pointed to the girl's back.

As they emerged from the fireplace, it took them a second to notice their fathers standing a few feet away from them.

"Hey, Dad. Look who I found in the-" Joaquin began before registering the situation. "Who's that?"

"Uh, my dad." Ana said.

Alejandro looked to Joaquin and Ana, then to Miguel.

"That would be my daughter." he said.

All of their heads turned to the stairs, as they heard footsteps coming down them. Emerging from the shadows came Elena, and Santiago.

"Alejandro. Something has happened-" Elena started before seeing everyone.

"Oh, hello. You must be the Mrs." Miguel said smugly.

"Dad? What's going on?" Joaquin asked.

All eyes were on Alejandro now.

"Mr. Chavez was just about to explain that." he said.

"I was." Miguel agreed. "Let me begin with a simple question."

He slowly unbuttoned the wrist of his shirt, and lifted up his sleeve.

"Does this symbol mean anything to you?" he asked.

Alejandro's eyes widened. He knew he was dealing with someone skilled, but he didn't think it was this serious. Burned onto Miguel's wrist, was the same L shaped symbol that was on the wrists of the men that had attacked the Villanueva family household just a couple of nights ago. Although, he was unaware of that incident taking place, Alejandro, nevertheless, recognized the symbol.

"La Liga?" he asked.

Miguel smiled.

"Yes."

* * *

Later, they all sat at the family room couch, and listened to Miguel explain the situation as he paced the room.

"For many years I've been trying to find La Liga." Miguel said. "And I have very good reason to believe that they may strike California next."

"What exactly is La Liga?" Joaquin asked, curiously.

"Mercenaries." Santiago explained. "They say the group formed sometime in the last century. La Liga chooses an area to ransack, then when everyone least expects it, they strike. It's always different, too. Riots, robberies, mass murder, you name it."

"And while everyone is busy panicking, La Liga takes the opportunity to steal the town's valuables right under their noses." Ana added.

"Members have been passing down their secrets to families for generations." Santiago continued.

"Exactly." Miguel concurred.

"Hold on. There is something I'm not understanding." Alejandro said. "If you know who these people are, why haven't you stopped them?"

"Because no one ever knows where they are. They just appear out of nowhere." Miguel said.

"How would you know they will attack California?" Elena asked.

"Their last hit was said to be in the territory of Utah, in an area close to here. So, we can only assume this is their next target." Santiago said.

"How do you people know so much about this La Liga, anyway?" Joaquin asked.

"Yes. Why is it that you also have the tattoo?" Alejandro asked.

Miguel, for the first time, showed a bit of hesitation in his face. This was clearly a touchy subject for him, as well as his children.

"I tried to join them once." he said.

"Why?" Alejandro asked.

"Greed." Miguel said. "I was just like them at the time. I had wealth, a wife, and children, but I wanted more. I sought them out, and found them. They trained me, and I nearly became a member."

"You said you didn't know who they were." Alejandro mentioned.

"We don't." Miguel said. "They wear their black masks all the time. They don't even trust their own recruits until they become an official member. And unfortunately, I left them before finding out who any of them were."

"What changed your mind?" Elena asked.

"They asked me to commit a crime that I couldn't bear. And, in return, they destroyed my life." Miguel said.

Joaquin noticed the sad expressions on Santiago and Ana's faces. Something awful must have happened to this family.

"Once they had realized that they had told me nearly all of their secrets, they burned my house and left me for dead. It's only a miracle that my children and I survived." Miguel continued. "That was 12 years ago, and we've been stealing to survive ever since."

This story was completely unbelievable. Neither Alejandro, Joaquin, nor Elena knew what to say next.

"That is why I need your help." Miguel said. "I have a score to settle with them."

"Why should we trust you?" Alejandro asked. "How do we know that this isn't just one of La Liga's tricks?"

"I don't believe you have a choice." Miguel said, as his smirk returned. "If you refuse to help me, I could simply just walk out that door, and reveal to the world that you are the one and only...Zorro."

The de la Vega family froze. They hadn't realized that until now. They really were stuck.

"I hope it doesn't have come to that, though." Ana insisted.

"I don't understand what you're so worried about. It sounds like a pretty reasonable deal to me." Miguel said. "I get my retribution, you get to stop La Liga, and I agree to keep your secret. Everyone wins, de la Vega."

"You'll help us, won't you?" Santiago said, turning to Elena.

She looked into his eyes, and saw the look of determination, and imagined the pain that he must've felt when La Liga had attacked his home. He had the eyes of a young man who would never give up.

"Do you have a place to stay?" Elena asked.

"No." Santiago answered.

"Alejandro, prepare the guest rooms." Elena said, quickly.

"What? They can't stay here." Alejandro complained.

"You do not expect them to sleep outside, do you?" Elena said, turning to her husband.

Alejandro sighed. He couldn't believe the mess he had just gotten himself into. Why couldn't something normal have happened tonight, like Felipe ringing the bell?


	7. Chapter 7

"I can't believe this." Alejandro complained as he paced the floor in the back room of the church.

Padre Felipe watched as his old friend pouted about the situation he had gotten himself into the night before. Alejandro usually vented all of his problems to Felipe. Ever since that scuffle with Count Armand 7 years ago.

"Then, Elena says, 'we cannot just let them stay out there'. Hell yes, we can." Alejandro continued. "We have no idea who these people really are, or what their true intentions could be. I mean, how much do you know about this La Liga?"

"Not much, really. I'm familiar with the name, but, some people think they're just a legend." Felipe said. "Like ordinary bandits, spreading a rumor about this league, so that everyone would be afraid to try and stop them."

"Oh, and you know what the worst part of all this is?" Alejandro asked. "If I didn't agree to help them, Miguel threatened to tell everyone who I am."

Alejandro stopped pacing, and stared at Felipe.

"I don't know. You think I should just give in?" he asked.

"Well, it looks like you don't have much choice in the matter." Felipe answered. "Alejandro, maybe it's best that you at least try to trust these people. They didn't attack you last night, did they?"

"...No."

"There might be some truth to the man's story, then. Listen, he came to you, asking for your help in seeking retribution. Who does that sound like to you?"

Alejandro stopped and thought.

* * *

Later, at the de la Vega hacienda, Elena sat in the library, reading a book. She heard a knock coming from the door, and lifted her head to see Santiago standing there.

"Señora?" he said.

Elena smiled at him.

"Please, Santiago. Call me Elena."

"...Elena."

"Yes?"

Santiago rubbed his hands against his pants, and walked into the library.

"I just wanted to thank you. For...understanding my family's situation." he said.

"Of course."

"I know my father may seem like a crook, but, there is more to him than that." Santiago continued. "You'll...never know how much this means to him. Us, actually."

Elena continued smiling at Santiago. After a few more seconds, she realized that he was staring.

"Is there something else, dear?" she asked.

"Oh, um, no. I'm sorry. Forgive me for interrupting you. I'd better, uh..." Santiago stumbled, as he turned to leave.

Once he was gone, Elena wondered why Santiago seemed to be full of anxiety when he was around her.

* * *

In the lair of Zorro, Ana stood alone, in the training circle with her eyes closed. With snakelike motion, she slowly did acrobatic jabs and poses with the sword she had in her hand; a meditative procedure she usually went through in her free time.

This training session was, however, interrupted by Joaquin, as he came down the stairs. Ana kept her eyes closed, while trying to stay focused.

"Cute poses." Joaquin said. "Your dad teach you all of those moves?"

Ana stopped, and faced Joaquin.

"A few of them." she said. "Some, I made up on my own."

"Maybe you could show me a little bit of them." Joaquin teased.

"What are you doing down here, Joaquin?" Ana turned as she put her sword back into its sheath.

"I come down here and train a lot."

Ana faced Joaquin again.

"Your dad teach you a lot of moves?" she mocked.

"A few. Some, I made up on my own." Joaquin mocked back.

"Uh-huh." Ana said skeptically. "You ever go out, and fight?"

"I wish." Joaquin said. "My dad would never allow it."

Ana scoffed.

"I can see why." she said. "Considering the way you fought last night."

Joaquin couldn't believe she just said that. Could she be serious?

"Excuse me? If I recall correctly, _I_ was the one who beat _you_." he said.

"Yeah, only by a fluke. Your cheap theatrics with the horse." Ana gestured over at Toronado's stable. "On any normal day, I'd take you without breaking a sweat."

For some reason, Joaquin was rather taken by this challenge.

"Well, maybe you'd be interested in testing that theory." Joaquin said.

"As a matter of fact, I would." Ana said with a smirk.

With that, Ana once again, unsheathed her sword, while Joaquin drew a blade of his own. They both smiled at each other, before beginning. Joaquin initiated the duel with a swipe, to which Ana blocked. A few more slashes at each other, and they came a brief pause.

"You're holding back." Ana said.

"Yeah, so?"

"Don't."

They continued fencing each other, and like a self-fulfilling prophecy, Joaquin began to feel slightly overwhelmed, while Ana retained her stamina.

This girl was amazing. Joaquin was starting to like her more and more.

The fight finally ended with Ana knocking Joaquin's sword out of his hand, while holding her own blade to his neck. By now, their faces were pretty close, as well. Their noses nearly touched.

"You see? Easy." Ana said.

Joaquin gave her a weak smile.

"Alright. You win." he said, holding his hands up.

Ana gave him another smirk, before turning to leave.

"Hey, you know you never gave me back my wallet." Joaquin called.

Ana stopped, turned around, and tossed the wallet to Joaquin. He just barely caught it. Out of instinct, he started going through it.

"Don't worry. Everything's accounted for." Ana said. "I didn't take any of your money."

With her back turned to Joaquin, Ana walked up the stairs to left the lair.

This was all very strange for Joaquin. There was something oddly sexy about the way Ana beat him. And another weird thing was that, for a split second, back when their faces were close, he could've sworn she looked at his lips.

* * *

In town, at the marketplace, Alejandro, and Elena shopped for groceries. They now had to buy twice as much food, thanks to their new tenants.

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Alejandro asked.

He'd been arguing with Elena about this ever since they got there.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Alejandro. Will you just let it go?" Elena said.

She picked up some fruits, and put them into the corn basket she was carrying.

"I'm just saying. They invite themselves in to stay with us, and not only do we now have to buy food for them, but, this morning, I saw Miguel lazing about on _my_ couch. _My_ couch, Elena." Alejandro complained.

"You are overreacting."

"Am I? How do we know these people aren't just some kind of bums, looking for a free place to sleep?"

"You know that is not the truth." Elena insisted.

"Why are you so eager to help them, anyway, eh?" Alejandro asked. "What makes you so trusting?"

"I do not know." Elena said. "It is just something in their eyes. There is such conviction in them. I could not help but believe them."

"Well, the only belief I have to go on, is that they know my secret." Alejandro said, slightly quietly. "Otherwise, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

Elena reached to a table, and tried to put some apples into the basket, but she dropped one of them, and it rolled across the ground, until it was stopped by a foot.

The man connected to that foot, was a handsome looking man, in his late 20s, early 30s. He was dressed in his aristocratic best. Definitely some kind of nobleman. His dark brown, slicked hair, was accompanied by chocolate eyes, and a thin mustache.

The man picked up the apple, and walked a few steps to Elena, who smiled at him.

"Thank you." she said, as he placed the apple back into the basket.

"You're welcome." the gentleman smiled back. "Miss...?"

"de la Vega. Elena de la Vega."

"Oh, yes, de la Vega, I've heard about you." the man said. "A pleasure to meet you."

He took Elena's hand, and kissed it.

"Charmed." he said.

She smiled at him, but there was a certain look in his eyes that seemed a little lecherous.

His attention then turned to Alejandro.

"So, you must be, Don Alejandro de la Vega." he assumed.

"Yes." Alejandro said, shaking the man's hand. "And, who might you be, sir?"

"Oh, excuse me. I've forgotten my manners." the man said. "My name is Fabio Dominquez."

"A pleasure to meet you, Fabio." Elena smiled.

"My family and I, just arrived here from Spain last evening." Fabio said. "We plan to make our new residence here in California."

Last night? Could that have some kind of correlation between La Liga?

As they were talking, another, slightly older looking man walked over to Fabio.

"Who're your friends?" the man asked.

"Don Alejandro, and Elena de la Vega, may I introduce my brother, Augusto." Fabio said.

"Augusto Dominquez. I know you." Alejandro said. "They say you're the richest man in Spain."

Alejandro shook the man's hand. Like his brother, he was handsome, had brown hair, and dressed like a gentleman.

"How do you do." Augusto smiled slightly. "And I think I've heard of your father, Señora. Don Rafael Montero, I believe was his name."

"Yes." Elena simply answered. Talking about her "father" was kind of a touchy subject.

"Though it was so long ago, I am sorry to hear about his passing." Augusto continued. "I heard he was a great man."

Yeah, if you count attempting to kill 3 innocent men just to capture Zorro "great." Anyway, back to the story.

"Thank you." Elena said.

"I am actually glad to have run into you. My family and I are hosting an event tonight, at our hacienda, to commemorate our new home." Augusto said, handing them a nice invitation.

"Bring as many as you like." Augusto added. "The more, the merrier."

"Of course, of course." Alejandro said. "We'll see if we can stop by."

"Excellent." Augusto said. "Until then. We hope you can make it."

"I'm definitely looking forward to seeing you there." Fabio said to Elena, who gave him a small smile.

The two men walked off, leaving Alejandro and Elena staring at the invitation they'd been given.

* * *

Back at the de la Vega estate, Alejandro handed the invitation to the party to Miguel. He stared at it, as Joaquin, Ana, Santiago, and Elena watched him. In the last couple of days, sitting near the fireplace while discussing game plans became a regular thing.

"What do you think?" Alejandro asked.

Miguel said nothing as he stared at the invitation.

"Well, dad, what is it?" Santiago asked.

"I don't know." Miguel finally said. "We can't be sure of anything. We know nothing about these people. They could just be another rich family from Spain."

"Well, Fabio did say that his family arrived in town last night." Alejandro added.

"But, is that evidence enough?" Miguel asked. "We need to know without a shadow of doubt."

"Then maybe we should just go to that party, and see if we notice anything strange about them." Ana suggested.

"What do you mean?" Joaquin asked. "Like an undercover type thing?"

"Yes. Exactly." Ana said.

Miguel still wasn't entirely sold on the idea.

"Care to elaborate a little more, Anamaria?" he asked.

"We can show up, as a family, and just keep an eye on them all. If they do anything out of the ordinary, maybe we can know for sure who they are." Ana said.

"And then what?" Miguel asked. "You think we should take our revenge right then, and there, in front of maybe hundreds of people?"

"I don't know, dad. It's the only plan I got." Ana added. "At least this way, we'd know if we're right or wrong."

Alejandro and Elena looked at each other in agreement to this plan.

"You'd better hope this works." Alejandro said to Miguel.

"I can't go." Miguel said.

"Why?"

"I may not recognize them, but they'd recognize me. Santiago, you and Ana go with them tonight. If you notice anything suspicious, report it back to me."

"Understood." Santiago said.

"Alright. Let's get you two changed into something more presentable." Elena said, as she lead the brother and sister upstairs to change out of their ordinary clothing.

* * *

At a different hacienda, on the other side of town, Augusto Dominquez stepped out of a carriage, and walked into his home. It was a beautiful place. Paintings and luxurious chandeliers everywhere. The establishment definitely had a "filthy rich" feel to it.

Augusto walked from room, to room, until he got to the master bedroom, where he saw his wife, Esmeralda, standing there.

Her beauty may even have rivaled Elena's. Esmeralda had dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and small full lips. She wore a devilish red corset, with matching gown gloves. She had clearly been preparing for tonight.

"Hello, my darling." she said.

"Esmeralda." Augusto said, before going to his wife, and embracing her with a passionate kiss.

"You look absolutely exquisite" he added.

"Hmm, it's the dress _you_ bought me." Esmeralda smiled.

"I know."

Needless to say, Esmeralda and Augusto were deeply in love. Whenever worse came to worst, they always agreed on the most important thing to them. Money.

"Is everything ready for the meeting tonight?" Esmeralda asked.

"Yes. We shall proceed as planned."

"Sir." a voice said.

Augusto turned around, and saw one of his men, Enrique.

"What is it?" Augusto asked.

"We've caught him" Enrique replied.

In the cellar of the Dominquez hacienda, Augusto descended down the steps, to find a young man, around 17 years of age, and two more men, restraining Zorro. The boy had short, dark brown hair, olive skin, and brown eyes, like Augusto. His body appeared to be well muscled, and toned.

"So. The legendary Zorro." Augusto said. "We meet at last."

Zorro said nothing. He just kept his head down.

"How long ago did you find him?" Augusto asked.

"About 10 minutes before you arrived home. He must've followed Carlos after he took this." one of the men said, taking some kind of trinket out of his pocket.

It was a necklace, with a red ruby on it. The man handed it to Augusto.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What have I told you about when pickpocketing, Carlos?" he asked. "There can be no room for failure."

"I understand, father," the boy said. "I won't be spotted again."

"I should hope not." Augusto said, giving his son a final glare, before focusing his attention back on Zorro.

"Remove his mask", he ordered.

In that instance, Zorro's mask was pulled off. Except, it wasn't Alejandro de la Vega. It was actually one of the fake Zorro's from the other night.

"What is your name, Señor?" Augusto asked.

The man didn't answer. Augusto picked up a knife from a nearby shelf.

"I said, what is your name?" he repeated.

Augusto then slashed slowly across the fake Zorro's chest. He groaned in pain.

"Hector. Hector Cruz." the man said, gritting his teeth.

"Well, well, Mr. Cruz, would you mind explaining to me why you are running around pretending to be someone you're not?" Augusto said.

"What are you talking about? I _am_ Zorro." Cruz lied.

"Well, I know for a fact that you are not." Augusto said. "You see, my men tell me that they took you down in less than a minute. The Zorro I've heard about couldn't possibly be that weak."

Cruz held his head down.

"So, you figured you'd be a hero, hmm?" Augusto taunted.

"I'll tell you what happens to heroes, Mr. Cruz." he continued, as he got closer to the fake Zorro's face.

"They always end up dead."

And with that, Augusto used the knife to slit the throat of Cruz. Blood sprayed over Augusto's clothes as Cruz fell to the ground and bled to death.

Dominquez looked to his men, and nonchalantly said:

"Get my suit ready for tonight."


	8. Chapter 8

At the de la Vega estate, Joaquin and Alejandro stood downstairs, preparing for the dinner party. Alejandro sat while Joaquin stood at a mirror, struggling to get on his bow tie.

"You remember the plan, right?" Alejandro asked.

"Yeah." Joaquin answered. "We'll go to see if we notice anything strange about the Dominquez family."

"I don't know. Something about all this just seems a little unnecessary." Alejandro said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when I saw them in town today, they just seemed like ordinary people. I can usually spot it when somebody's trying to hide something."

"Yeah, but." Joaquin still couldn't get his tie on. "Miguel said that's how La Liga operates."

"Miguel is paranoid."

"Maybe. But, what if he's right?"

Joaquin just couldn't tie that stupid tie.

"God, how do you get this on?" He groaned.

Alejandro smiled, and walked over to his son.

"Let me help." he said.

"Thanks." Joaquin rolled his eyes.

After a moment in silence, Joaquin decided to change the subject to what had been on his mind.

"Dad, how do you tell when a girl likes you?" he asked.

Alejandro pretty much froze. It wasn't shock, it was more unexpected.

"Since when do you come to me asking about girls?" Alejandro asked back.

Joaquin shrugged.

"I don't know. Now, I guess. So, how would I know?"

Alejandro finished up on Joaquin's tie.

"What girl are you talking about?" Alejandro asked.

"No one in particular. I just want to know." Joaquin lied.

"Well, that's hard to say, son." he began. "I guess, it would be when..."

Joaquin stood there, listening, but Alejandro just couldn't find the words.

"Eh, why don't you ask your mother about this?" Alejandro stammered. "She'd be more of an expert on this subject."

As Alejandro finished his sentence, Joaquin noticed his mother, and the Chavez siblings come down the stairs. Santiago was dressed in a nice black tuxedo, with a white pocket handkerchief that had been lent to him by Alejandro. His medium long hair was slightly gelled back, to appear more presentable than his usual rugged look.

Elena was dressed in a beautiful white dress, with a purple corset. She wore a pearl necklace, and diamond earrings. Her hair hung loose with a bit of it clamped in the back.

Ana, was truly a vision. She wore a stunning light green dress, and matching corsage which went perfectly with her eyes. She had the back of her hair held up in a small bun, which left room for people to see her pearl earrings.

Joaquin was basically drooling. He seriously could not keep his eyes off of her. He felt his forehead heat up, and begin to feel tiny drops of sweat forming. As Ana walked towards him, Joaquin nervously cleared his throat.

"Um, hi." he said, pathetically.

"Hi. Are you feeling okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm great." he said, pulling his collar with his fingers to let some air into his now heated chest.

Alejandro walked over to his wife, and kissed her.

"You look beautiful." he said. Elena smiled.

"Why thank you, kind sir." she teased.

Santiago watched Joaquin attempt to continue his conversation with Ana.

"You look...really pretty, tonight." Joaquin mumbled.

"Thank you." Ana smiled. "You don't look so bad, yourself."

Joaquin chuckled awkwardly.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Alright. Let's go." Santiago simply said.

At that moment, Miguel walked into the room and stood against a wall.

"Wait." he said.

"Are you sure you're not going with us?" Alejandro asked.

"Yes. I just need to talk to my children for a moment."

Ana and Santiago approached their father, and they gathered into a huddle.

"Make sure you stay on your guard tonight." Miguel said. "Alright?"

"We'll be careful." Santiago said.

"If you notice anything strange. Anything. You tell Alejandro right away."

Both teenagers nodded.

"And, Ana." Miguel said. "Try to keep your hands out of other people's pockets tonight."

Ana smirked.

"I'll try, thanks." she said.

"Remember to stand up straight and use big words." Miguel instructed.

Santiago stood up properly, while Ana made the stance of a noblewoman.

"Noncommittal." Santiago said.

"Excellent." Miguel grinned.

"Alright, let's do this thing." Santiago asserted.

* * *

When they arrived at the Dominquez hacienda, Ana and Santiago marveled at its size. It was a pretty luxurious establishment. Tons of people had turned out for this occasion. Many were dressed in their best, as they mingled around and inside the place.

"Wow. It's even larger than yours." Santiago commented to Joaquin.

"Alright, now. Remember to stay focused." Alejandro said. "We don't want to look suspicious."

"Hey, if they turn out to just be normal people, we have nothing to worry about, right?" Santiago said.

He took his sister's arm, and wrapped it in his, before walking off towards the hacienda with her. Alejandro rolled his eyes, as he, Elena, and Joaquin walked after them.

At the door, where people were entering, there stood Augusto Dominquez, Fabio, and Esmeralda. They had been graciously welcoming guests into their home for the past half hour. When Alejandro and Elena reached the door, Fabio's smile lit up, as he gazed at her. She gave him a smile back.

"Well, good evening, Doña de la Vega." he said, taking her hand and kissing it. "Might I say you look absolutely beautiful tonight."

"Thank you." Elena replied.

Alejandro had given Fabio a quick, jealous glance after his hand kissing gesture.

"Welcome to our home, Mr. de la Vega." Augusto said, shaking Alejandro's hand.

"Good evening." Alejandro replied.

"Please. Allow me to introduce my wife, Esmeralda." Augusto said.

"How do you do?" Esmeralda smiled softly at them.

"Good evening." Elena replied.

"This is our son, Joaquin." Alejandro added.

"Hello, young man." Augusto replied. Joaquin just simply smiled.

Fabio then noticed Ana, and Santiago.

"Are these also your children?" he asked.

Just then, none of them could figure out what to say.

"Well, uh, no." Santiago stammered. "See, we're, uh.."

"We're their..." Ana muttered.

"Relatives." Elena finally said, adding a quick smile.

Fabio and Augusto smiled back.

"Oh, really?" the former asked.

"Yes. They are my husband's niece and nephew. Isn't that right, darling?" Elena said.

Everyone else caught on, and decided to play along.

"Oh, well, yes. Yes. They are Joaquin's cousins, visiting from Spain. This is Ana, and Santiago." Alejandro introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Santiago." Fabio said, shaking the boy's hand.

"Nice to meet you, sir." Santiago said.

He wasn't sure whether to keep his cool, or to go out of his way to challenge the guy. Who knows? This guy could actually not have anything to do with La Liga.

"Ana, right?" Fabio turned his attention to her.

"Yes. How do you do?" Ana said. Fabio shook her hand as well.

"Well, now that you're all here, you are welcome to join in the festivities." Augusto said. "Sit anywhere you'd like, we have food and drink on the far corner table, over there. And, for your musical entertainment, the maestro takes requests."

"Elena. Would you and your husband like to join us at our table?" Fabio asked.

Elena and Alejandro looked at each other for a moment. They saw the opportunity. Elena smiled.

"We would be delighted, Fabio." she said to him.

"Good." Fabio smiled. He held his arm out for Elena, and she took it. This gesture also warranted an ugly look from Alejandro. He kept his urge to punch Fabio out in check, and followed him, and Elena away.

While Augusto and his wife were still at the door, he turned back to the kids.

"Enjoy yourselves, children." he smiled at them.

It was a weird, creepy type smile, too. It kind of freaked them out. Nonetheless, they walked past the doors, to fully enter the hacienda.

"He seems nice enough." Joaquin said.

"Yeah, he's definitely got the fake, condescending smiles down." Santiago said.

The estate looked even bigger on the inside. It was a real quality building. Candles lit everywhere, decorations on the walls, and in the center was a huge chandelier that made the place glow.

Lots of people, danced, ate, laughed, and talked among each other, as Santiago, Ana, and Joaquin passed through the crowd.

* * *

About 20 minutes later, after Ana had gone off to do her own thing, Santiago and Joaquin stood by the food table, eating. On another side of the hacienda, Elena and Alejandro talked politics with the Dominquez family at their table. It may have been the atmosphere of the place, or the music, but for some reason, all of them had semi-forgotten the real reason why they were there.

As Santiago continued eating, Joaquin decided to speak.

"Hey." he said.

"Hmm?" Santiago replied.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

"No, I mean. It's just, you seem pretty confident, and all. So I wanted ask you about... girls."

Santiago listened, but Joaquin kind of stalled.

"What about them?" Santiago asked.

"How do you tell if a girl likes you?"

Santiago was kind of thrown for a loop, there.

"What?"

"Girls." Joaquin repeated. "If you like one, how would you usually tell if they might like you back?"

Santiago folded his arms, and stared at Joaquin for a moment.

"Why do you ask?" Santiago said.

"Well...There's this one girl, who I think may be giving me mixed signals and everything, but I'm still not exactly sure how she feels about me. It's weird. I mean, this has never happened to me before, but the thing is, I don't even know how I feel about _her_ yet, but I just know that can't stop thinking about her, and-"

As Joaquin trailed on, and on, Santiago decided to interrupt.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down." he said. "Look, Joaquin, if you like Ana that much, why don't you just tell her?"

"What?" Joaquin was a little shocked that Santiago knew who he was talking about.

"Oh, come on. You think I didn't notice the way you stare at her?" Santiago asked. "You like her, don't you?"

Joaquin paused.

"Well, I...I-I don't know." he sighed.

"Look, it's not a problem, okay." Santiago said, putting his arm around Joaquin's shoulder in a mentoring sort of way.

"All you need to do is be cool. Alright?"

"I don't know what you mean." Joaquin said.

"You know. Be cool." Santiago repeated. "Just, be polite, smile, offer her your coat, tell funny jokes. That kind of stuff. That usually gets a girl to like you in no time."

"Okay." Joaquin said. "But, how will I know if she likes me?"

"Well, girls usually play with their hair a lot when talking to guys they like. They smile, and laugh at horrible jokes."

Damn. Ana hadn't done any of that around Joaquin.

"But, the most important thing, is that you be yourself." Santiago added.

"That's what everybody says, but it doesn't really work." Joaquin protested.

"Doesn't really work?" Santiago asked. "Okay, see those girls over there?"

He pointed to a table a few feet away from them, that was populated by at least 5 teen girls around the boys' age.

"Watch carefully, my apprentice." Santiago said, sarcastically.

Before he could go, though, Joaquin spotted Ana coming back towards them from the distance.

"Wait. She's coming back." he said, grabbing Santiago's arm.

"Then just talk to her." Santiago said, pulling his arm away.

"Where are you going?" Joaquin asked.

"What, you thought I'd only talk to those girls if you were watching me?" Santiago continued over to the girls table. "Remember what I said, be yourself."

Joaquin was now alone. Ana saw him, and walked through the crowd, holding a glass of punch in her hand. As she approached him, Joaquin tried to remember all of the advice Santiago had given him.

"Um. Hi, Ana." he semi-smiled.

"Hey. Where'd my brother go?" she asked, indifferently.

"I-I don't know. I guess it's just you and me, here." Joaquin said, awkwardly.

"Okay." Ana nodded her head, and took a sip of her punch.

Be funny, be funny. Joaquin tried to think of something Ana would laugh at.

"So, Ana." he began.

"Yeah?"

"Uh. The chandelier." Joaquin said, pointing to the bright chandelier in the ceiling.

"The chandelier?" Ana asked, confused, now looking up too.

"Yeah. It's really bright, you know."

"Mm-hmm."

"It could make a person go blind if they stare at it too long." Joaquin smirked.

"I'm sorry. Was that supposed to be funny?" Ana asked sincerely.

Joaquin's smile dropped. His ego practically took a nosedive.

"I guess not." he said.

Ana made a "whatever" face, and sipped her punch again. What else was it that Santiago had told Joaquin?

"Are you cold?" Joaquin asked. "Because if you are, you can borrow my coat."

Ana smiled and giggled a bit.

"I'm fine, but, thank you." she said.

"Right. Okay." Joaquin faked a chuckle in an attempt to appear confident.

"Joaquin, are you okay? You're acting weird." Ana asked.

"Oh, no. I'm fine." Joaquin assured her. "Can I...get you something to drink?"

"No, thanks, I'm still kinda working on this one." Ana said, indicating the glass in her hand.

This was strange of Joaquin. Ana couldn't understand his sudden change in attitude. Seriously, what was this kid's angle? Ana glared a bit at Joaquin to try to decipher what was going on with him. He gave her a huge grin, which really kind of creeped Ana out.

"Um, you know you've got a piece of food stuck in your front teeth?" Ana said.

Joaquin quickly closed his mouth and started to use his tongue to try and scrape the piece of meat off of his teeth. How embarrassing. Joaquin had never felt so stupid in his life. He was starting to blush due to the wave of awkwardness he felt coming over him.

Ana watched him, still wondering if he was getting sick or something.

"Joaquin, what's going on?" she asked.

Before he could answer, though, another guy walked up to them.

"Excuse me." he said.

Ana smiled at him. He was roughly 17 years old, and muscular. It was the boy from earlier. Augusto's son, Carlos.

"Hello." Ana said to him.

"I'm Carlos Dominquez." he said.

"Ana." she said. He took her hand and kissed it.

"Hello, beautiful Ana." Carlos said, before turning his attention to Joaquin. "And, you are?"

"Joaquin." he said.

"He's my cousin." Ana said, still playing along to Elena's lie from earlier.

"Yes, I know." Carlos said. "Are you enjoying the party?"

"Yes. Your hacienda is beautiful." Ana said.

"Yeah, it's alright." Joaquin said, jealously.

Carlos ignored Joaquin's comment, and focused his attention on Ana.

"Listen, I would very much like for you to accompany me to my table, so I can properly introduce you to my family." he said.

"Um, sure." Ana said. She turned to Joaquin. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Joaquin was taken back by this. He sighed and nodded.

"Yeah." he said.

Carlos and Ana's arms embraced as they walked off into the crowd of people. All of a sudden, it registered in Joaquin's brain. Dominquez! That's the name of the family hosting the party! Joaquin decided to follow Ana to the table, but first, he had to get Santiago. When he turned and saw him, Santiago was still sitting at the girls' table, kissing one of them. Joaquin walked over to the table, and tapped Santiago's shoulder.

"Hey, Santiago, we gotta go." he said.

Santiago broke the kiss with the girl, who smiled at him. He looked to Joaquin.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because, Ana's going off with some guy." Joaquin said. "Don't you think it's time to do what we came here to do?"

Santiago looked around, and saw Ana walking arm and arm with Carlos. Being the protective older brother that he was, Santiago decided to follow them. He turned his head, back to the girl, and kissed her once more.

"Excuse me. I've gotta go." he said.

He stood up, and left the table. The girls all giggled, and whispered to each other about him.

As he walked away with Santiago, Joaquin felt confused.

"Wait, who was that?" he asked, indicating the girl Santiago had been kissing.

"Huh? Oh, I don't know." Santiago simply said. "Like I said, Joaquin. Just be cool. How'd it go with you and Ana?"

"Horrible, thanks."

"You choked, hmm?"

"That's the understatement of the year."

"It's okay, Joaquin. Just do something simple, like ask her for a dance."

"Dance?"

"Yeah."

Without another word, Joaquin and Santiago found a large dinner table, where at least 12 people were sitting, their family included. Two of the men were twins. Ana sat next to Carlos, while Elena and Alejandro sat near Fabio, Augusto, and Esmeralda.

"Ah, children, welcome." Augusto said. He stood up, to introduce the rest of the people at the table to them.

"I see you've already met my son, Carlos." he said.

Carlos smiled at the boys.

"These are my colleagues." Augusto continued before indicating several men at the table. "This is William, Jorge, Enrique, and the twins Jaime and Angel."

William was an average looking man, in his late 30s, he had slicked back hair, light skin, and dark hazel eyes. He didn't look like he'd be a particular threat to anybody.

Jorge was obviously of Mexican descent. Roughly 25 years old, his long hair was held back in a braid. He also sported a thin beard, and had the look of a wolf on his face. It was hard to tell if the man even blinked.

Enrique had a distinct look to him, as well. He was handsome, and muscular. His brown eyes matched his suit. His gaze was that of steel.

The twins, Jaime and Angel were identical to each other, in both looks and clothing. Both had long, straight hair, that went down to their shoulders. They smiled as they smoked cigars.

Joaquin and Santiago bowed to them, in courtesy, before sitting down. Joaquin sat, with Ana to his left, and Santiago to his right.

"So, what exactly does your family do?" Joaquin asked.

"We primarily run a Spanish based railroad company. But, we are looking to start a business in banking here." Augusto said.

"Oh, so you're the ones building that new bank in town." Joaquin said.

For the past month and a half, pretty much everyone had noticed the huge building being built in town. As of now, it had entered it's final stage of construction.

"That's right. We plan to have the grand opening sometime within the next week." Augusto continued.

This was actually getting kind of boring. What would La Liga build a bank for? These people couldn't be them. Sure, they definitely seemed interested in money, but they couldn't possibly be the people of the legend. Enrique decided to change the subject.

"So, boys, tell us about yourselves." he said.

"Well..." Joaquin began. He didn't know what to say.

"We're cousins." Santiago added. "We're cousins, obviously, but, um. We're pretty close, too."

"Do you two share a lot in common?" Esmeralda asked.

"I'd say we have pretty similar goals, yes." Joaquin said, indicating La Liga.

The table fell silent again before Alejandro decided to speak.

"So, what about all of the robberies that have been happening over the past few days?" he said.

"Yes. I heard about that." Esmeralda added.

"I'm sure it's nothing the town's folk hero, Zorro, can't overcome." Augusto said.

"Zorro? Please." Alejandro said in subterfuge. "It's the police's job to take care of criminals. Not masked men with delusions of grandeur."

Some of the others at the table nodded in agreement to Alejandro.

"You wouldn't call Zorro a hero, sir?" Carlos asked.

"If you want call riding around on horses, jumping from buildings, and sword fighting for the sake of getting a few minutes of fame, heroic, then yes, I guess I would." Alejandro replied.

He was good at this. It was a usual tactic he made when talking about Zorro in public. It was the best way he could think of to hide his true identity. Ana, and Santiago had to keep themselves from smiling, as to not give away the truth behind Alejandro's ruse.

"You know, I've always wondered what it'd be like in a sword fight with Zorro." Santiago said.

That comment got Fabio's attention.

"Oh, so you enjoy fencing?" he asked.

"I've been practicing for as long as I can remember." Santiago shrugged.

"You know, I'm something of a swordsman, myself."

"Really? Well, we should have a little match sometime."

"How about right now?"

"...Really?"

"Hmm." Fabio said, nodding his head.

"Are you sure that would be alright?" Alejandro asked Augusto.

"Of course. Why not?" Augusto replied.

"I do not think that would be the best idea." Elena pointed out. "Someone could get hurt."

"Nonsense, my dear. We have a couple of practice foils around here." Augusto said.

"Are you up to it?" Fabio asked Santiago.

The latter looked to Alejandro, Elena, Ana, and Joaquin for confirmation. They all gave unsure looks.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm game." Santiago said, standing up.

This was interesting. A sword fight in the middle of a party. What was this guy playing at? Santiago exchanged looks with his sister. Augusto then stood up, and tapped his glass with a spoon to get everyone's attention.

"May I have everyone's attention, please?" he called out.

The band stopped playing, and everyone's head turned to Dominquez at the table.

"How is everyone enjoying themselves tonight?" he asked the crowd.

They all responded in applause.

"Yes it has been quite an evening, however, as a treat, my brother and a new friend would like you all to watch them engage in a little exhibition sword duel." He continued.

The crowd applauded again.

"So, if you would all please step back, to form a circle, we can begin the performance."

The crowd did as they were asked, and created a ring around the ballroom, giving Santiago and Fabio plenty of space to fight. A house servant brought them practice foils, and they stepped into the little "arena", and stared each other down while the crowd watched them.

"Good luck, Santiago." Fabio said.

"...Yeah, you too."

They tapped their blades together, before taking their fighting stance. The way the crowd watched them felt like back when the ancient Egyptians gathered to watch the Pharaoh's guards duel.

Santiago began the fight, by taking a swift stroke at Fabio. The attack was blocked. Santiago attacked, again, and was blocked again. Okay, maybe he'd have to put in more effort than he thought with this one. He attacked several more times, and once again, all of his moves were met with steady defense. It was now Fabio's turn. He attacked Santiago, who's blockage of the moves was met with slight difficulty. This guy knew what he was doing.

Over at the table, the Dominquez family, and their colleagues smiled, while the de la Vega's marveled at Fabio's skill.

Santiago stared down his opponent once more. Again, he initiated with an attack, he moved faster than before, and tried more aggressively to disarm Fabio. To his shock, Fabio took it like a pro, and retaliated. It took nearly everything Santiago had to avoid getting hit with Fabio's foil that time. He could even feel beads of sweat starting to form on his head.

Fabio attacked again, with Santiago beginning to slow down. It was as if his opponent had an unlimited amount of stamina. It wasn't long before Santiago was caught off guard, and Fabio kicked his ankle, causing him to fall on his back.

The crowd applauded. Santiago looked up at Fabio. The embarrassment of the crowd cheering for Dominquez made Santiago angry. Fabio held the tip of his foil near Santiago's throat.

"...Again?" Fabio smirked. "Or would you like to rest up first?"

Without warning, Santiago used his foil to swipe Fabio's out of the way of his throat, and sprang to his feet. He attacked again, giving it nearly everything he had, but no matter how hard he tried, Santiago just couldn't find an opening. Now he was really getting mad. He was starting to lose his follow-through, his technique began to get sloppy.

At the table, Ana couldn't believe what was happening. Neither could Joaquin and his parents. The way this guy fought was inconceivable.

When their foil blades locked, Fabio and Santiago looked into each other's eyes. By now, Santiago was sweating, while Fabio looked like he hadn't lost a bit of energy. Something caught Santiago's peripheral vision, and he absentmindedly looked down near Fabio's hands. Santiago's eyes widened when he caught a small glimpse of Fabio's wrist. It looked like the bottom half of an L, the rest of it hidden under Fabio's sleeve.

Fabio took Santiago's absentmindedness as an opening, and used this opportunity to knock the sword out of the boy's hands. The foil went across the room, leaving Santiago defenseless. In an attempt to still win the duel, Santiago grabbed at the handle of Fabio's foil. They wrestled with it for half a second, before Fabio employed a quick judo sweep, that once again, knocked Santiago to the floor.

The crowd applauded again. This time, when Fabio held the foil to his throat, Santiago didn't intend to fight any further. He just sat there, panting, looking up into his opponent's eyes.

"You're a fair swordsman, Santiago." Fabio said. "I hope we can do this again sometime."

"...Yeah." Santiago panted. "You can _count_ on it."

Fabio's smile faded, as he noticed how serious Santiago looked. He held his hand out to help him up, but Santiago ignored the gesture, and simply stood on his own and returned to the table.

The crowd was silent. No one applauded.

"Well, now. That was interesting." Augusto said, standing. "Let's continue the party, shall we?"

The band began playing again, and people went back to dancing, and talking, and eating.

As Santiago sat back down, he realized that even though his pride was damaged from losing the fight, he also found out the truth of Fabio. He was a member of La Liga. He started to suspect that everyone at the table was, but he couldn't be sure.

"Are you okay?" Ana commented on her brother's blank stare.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he said.

When Fabio returned to the table, he walked towards Elena. He shot a look to Santiago.

"Good match. You did a fine job." he said.

Santiago glared at him.

"Well, now. We are at a party, right?" Fabio continued. "Elena, may I have this dance?"

This guy was unbelievable. Not only did he just embarrass Santiago in front of all those people, but now he wanted to dance with Alejandro's wife?

Elena and Alejandro looked to each other. Neither of them liked this situation.

"If you don't mind, that is." Fabio said to Alejandro.

"Well..."

"It's quite alright." Augusto said. "If you'd like, I'll allow you to dance with my wife, don Alejandro."

Esmeralda smiled at him. Fabio held his hand out for Elena. She reluctantly took it, and walked out to the dance floor.

"Do you mind?" Alejandro asked Esmeralda.

"Not at all."

She rose from her chair, and walked out to the dance floor with Alejandro.

Since everyone was starting to dance, Joaquin decided to take this opportunity to ask Ana.

"Ana?"

"Yeah?" she said.

"Um, would you like to, uh..." he stammered.

Before he could even get the words out, Carlos rose from his chair, and looked to Ana.

"Ana, would you like to dance?" he asked.

Rather taken with this request, Ana got to her feet.

"I would love to." she smiled at him.

As she walked off with Carlos, Joaquin sighed in shame at his failure. He leaned his head over to his right to talk to Santiago.

"I can't believe it. Why would she want to dance with him?"

"Trust me, we've got bigger problems than that." Santiago said.

On the dance floor, Elena talked with Fabio as they danced.

"Your fighting techniques are impressive." She said. "Where did you learn them?"

Fabio chuckled.

"Only from the finest swordsmen in Spain, my dear. That boy of yours seems a little upset about losing."

Elena smiled.

"Do not take it personally, Fabio. He is still young and impulsive."

As Alejandro and Esmeralda danced together, she spoke to him.

"You have wonderful children, Mr. de la Vega." she said.

"Thank you. Your son is quite polite, as well."

"Yes, he has always had good manners. But, I have to ask. Why does your nephew have such an interest in sword fighting?"

Alejandro wasn't sure how to answer that question.

"Eh, well, perhaps he feels that when the time comes, he will have to defend himself." he said.

"Children shouldn't have to grow up too fast." Esmeralda said. "I've heard they have trouble adjusting."

Alejandro knew this was true. That comment reminded him of when he was younger, and he and his brother were orphans.

Back at the table, Santiago and Joaquin were the only ones left sitting there. Santiago knew that he couldn't tell any of them what he saw yet. They might cause a scene. Still, the anticipation of telling someone was making him fidgety. He kept tapping his fingers on the table.

"Do you think she likes him?" Joaquin asked.

"Who?"

"Ana. Do you think she likes that Carlos guy?"

"No. I don't- I don't think she does."

"What's your problem?" Joaquin asked.

Santiago looked at him.

"Nothing. It's nothing."

He gazed into the crowd of people, before he saw Ana, and Carlos slow dancing. Santiago really didn't like this. Not only the fact that his sister was dancing with some guy, she was dancing with an enemy.

"Alright, that's it." Santiago stood up, and walked into the crowd.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Joaquin called after him.

On the dance floor, Ana danced close to Carlos.

"You dance divinely, Ana." he said.

"Thank you." she said. "You do too."

Carlos scoffed.

"I'm a lightweight." he said. "You're the only reason I can keep my balance."

Ana giggled.

Her smiled faded though, when she saw her brother step through the crowd to her.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"We need to talk."

"Why?"

Carlos turned to face Santiago.

"Is there something I can help you with?" he asked.

"No. I'm just cutting in."

Santiago put his arm around Carlos' shoulder and took him to the side.

"Forgive me, Carlos. I just need to have a quick word with my sister. Do you mind?"

"No, no, not at all." Carlos smiled.

"Thanks." Santiago tapped Carlos' back as he walked off.

Ana went to her brother's arms, and started to dance with him.

"So, what's the deal, Santiago?" she asked. "Why are you being so protective all of a sudden?"

"Well, as your big brother, it's my job to be protective." Santiago said. "Especially after your incident."

Ana was a bit taken back. That was a touchy subject. She didn't even want to think about it.

"Do you like this guy?" Santiago asked.

"What?"

"Do you?"

"No. He's kinda prissy."

Ana really wasn't interested in Carlos. She might have thought he was cute at first, but as she got to know him more, he came across as really fake.

"Good, because I'd hate for you to fall for the enemy." Santiago said.

Ana didn't understand.

"Enemy? What are you talking about?"

Santiago went in close so that he could whisper in Ana's ear.

"When I was fighting with Fabio, I noticed something that looked like a scar under his sleeve. An L shaped scar."

He drew back to see Ana's shocked expression.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"You saw the way he fought, Ana. Who do we know that fights better than we do?"

The reality of the situation was setting in. Ana realized what had to be done.

"We should tell Alejandro."


	9. Chapter 9

"Are you absolutely sure?" Alejandro asked.

"Positive." Santiago responded.

It was a few hours later. After the party ended, the de la Vega's went back home, and were gathered in their same meeting area, discussing what Santiago had seen at the party. He sat in a chair, while Elena, Alejandro, Joaquin, Ana, and Miguel stood.

"La Liga is here?" Miguel asked.

"Yes." Santiago said. "I saw what I saw. It was the tattoo of an L on Fabio's wrist. Just like yours."

"Did any of the others have it?"

"I'm not sure. I only saw his. He's part of La Liga, Dad."

Miguel couldn't believe it. It was like a dream come true.

"His family might be too, I don't know. But, I do think Fabio wouldn't be in an organization like that without his brother knowing." Santiago continued.

"So, the only way to know for sure, is to see if they all have tattoos." Ana said.

"Alright. Let's go." Miguel said.

"What?" Alejandro asked.

"I've been searching for these people for 12 years. They ruined my life. It's time they payed for it."

Miguel seemed to be a little overeager to get these people.

"Well, wait a minute." Alejandro said. "We don't even know what we're up against."

"Or how many of them there are." Elena said.

"I don't care! I may never get this opportunity again. I'm gonna take the fight to them." Miguel pressed.

"Calm down, Dad. Maybe we should think this through first." Ana suggested.

"Yeah, you don't want to just burst in, guns blazing and everything." Joaquin added.

Alejandro had heard enough. If this was a job for anyone, it was a job for Zorro.

"I'll go." he said. "Alone."

"What? You can't do that." Miguel complained.

"If I go alone, there's a smaller chance that I'll be discovered."

"Alejandro, listen to me-"

"No, you listen, Miguel. You're thinking with your emotions, and not using your head. If you go, you'll get yourself killed."

Joaquin thought about this, and realized that this could be his moment.

"I'm going with you." he said.

Everyone looked at him.

"Joaquin, I don't have time for this." Alejandro sighed.

"Dad, listen. I could cause a distraction, and while they're focusing on me, you can-"

"No!" Alejandro yelled. "How many times do I have to tell you? You're not coming out with me."

"Well, you cannot go by yourself, Alejandro." Elena said. Alejandro looked at her.

"I am not taking our son to fight terrorists, Elena."

"Then, let _me_ go with you. Do not do this alone."

"She's right. Alejandro, Fabio was insane when I fought him." Santiago said. "It was like he wasn't even trying. And he's only one man. What do you think it'll be like fighting all of them?"

"I should be the one to do this!" Miguel yelled. "This is too personal for the rest of you to be involved!"

"Listen to you! You really think you'll be able to fight with your blood boiling like that?" Santiago yelled.

"I am _tired_ of being treated like I can't defend myself around here!" Joaquin yelled.

"None of you are helping the situation!" Ana yelled.

Pretty soon, everyone was yelling among each other about what was going to happen. Alejandro knew he needed to break this heated argument.

"NO!" he yelled.

Everyone was then silent.

"No." He said more calmly. "You are all staying here. I am going alone. I am going to find out once and for all who these people are."

"But, Dad-" Joaquin began.

"I won't get caught. Trust me." Alejandro interrupted. "Right now, what is important is to find out what La Liga wants."

This made Miguel angry, but he stayed silent. He was really bent on going after La Liga.

"When the day comes, we will all have our battle to fight. But, we cannot afford to waste any of our time now." Alejandro continued.

No one said another word. Alejandro took this as his cue to leave.

He went down into Zorro's lair, opened up his dresser, which revealed his masks. He quickly slipped on his outfit, mask, and hat, gathered his sword, and whip, climbed onto his trusted horse, Toronado, and rode out into the moonlight, bound for the Dominguez hacienda.

* * *

When Alejandro got to the Dominguez estate, he stopped Toronado on the back side of the hacienda, so that they wouldn't be seen. After that, he slowly climbed the building, until he got to a balcony. He opened the window, and crawled inside. He was now standing in a hallway close to a banister. It didn't seem like anyone was around. He slowly walked over to the stairs, and peeked his head down to observe the downstairs, where he could see a man. It was Augusto. He was just standing there, as if he were waiting for something.

Alejandro then heard a door open from a room close to him. Before he could be seen, he quickly hid behind a white curtain, that was near the window he had entered in. The person who had walked out of the room, was Fabio. Alejandro held his breath as Fabio walked passed the window, and walked down the stairs.

Downstairs, Fabio approached his brother.

"Everyone is ready to begin." he said to Augusto.

"Alright." Augusto answered.

Alejandro heard the conversation, but he couldn't see it, so he moved the curtain a bit, to peek down the stairs once more. He swiftly had to hide again, though, as Fabio and Augusto began to walked up the stairs. As they walked past the window, while Alejandro hid behind the curtain, Augusto felt a chilly gust of wind.

"Who left this damned window open?" he said, as he walked closer and closed it.

Alejandro froze. If they spotted him, he was finished.

Luckily they didn't, and they continued to walked down the hall, before opening the first door on the right, and entered the room. Alejandro came out from behind the curtain, and slowly walked towards the room Fabio and Augusto had just disappeared into. As he grabbed onto the door handle, Alejandro slowly turned it, and cracked the door open.

As he peered inside, he could hear a few voices, but could barely see anyone. There was maybe 12 people in the room. His eyes wandered around the small area he could see, before he caught a glimpse of a small roof window at the ceiling. He decided to make sure he knew who everyone in the room was, so he slowly shut the door, and walked back towards the window, and opened it.

He looked behind himself for a second before climbing back out onto the balcony. He heard Toronado make a small whinny.

"Hey, shhh!" Alejandro shushed the horse.

He then began to climb up the hacienda higher, until he reached the roof. He looked to the ground, and realized how much of an ugly fall it would be. Never-minding that, he found the roof window, and opened it slightly, so that no one would notice, and that he could hear and watch the conversation going on inside.

In the room, 9 people were sitting in chairs that formed a circle, while 1 man paced in the center of them. They were all dressed in black cloaks with hoods. They looked like some kind of Satanist cult, meeting for their weekly ritual. And not to Alejandro's surprise, they all sported the L shaped tattoo on their wrists.

"This meeting is now in session." the man in the middle said.

He removed his hood, revealing him to be Augusto Dominguez.

The rest of the people sitting in the chairs removed their hood masks as well. It was the people from dinner. Esmeralda, Fabio, William, Jaime and Angel, Jorge, Enrique, and even Carlos. There was one other man there, as well. Someone Alejandro did not recognize. A bald man with a scar that ran down his left eye and ended at his cheek. He looked tall, and extremely muscular, and the look on his face indicated that he would show no mercy when it came down to a fight. It was obvious why this man wasn't present at dinner. Another strange thing about him, that Alejandro noticed, was that unlike the others, the big guy lacked the L tattoo.

"Everything is proceeding as planned, my brothers." Augusto continued. "Construction of the bank has entered an accelerated process, and the new shipments of supplies should be in by the end of this week."

Supplies? Supplies of what?

"Furthermore" Augusto added. "It has also come to my attention that in this community, crime rates have become increasingly low."

"Is it because of Zorro?" Carlos asked.

"Zorro? The one who wears the mask?" Fabio said. "He's a nobody. We don't have to worry about him."

"Oh, no, brother." Augusto said. "Zorro has certainly become a problem. 17 years ago, he stopped Don Rafael Montero from carrying out his plan to purchase California from General Santa Anna using gold dug from his own land. 7 years ago, he prevented that French count from destroying this entire country. He has criminals running scared at every turn, and he must be stopped if we are to be successful in our operation."

"If you really feel that Zorro will complicate things, why did you choose this town to be our next undertaking?" Enrique asked.

"I love a good challenge, brother." Augusto turned to Enrique. "Don't you?"

The others looked at their leader as if he had finally gone too far. If Zorro had accomplished all of these things, how were they supposed to do any better.

"Don't worry, my friends. I have a plan." Augusto said. "What do you think is the most advantageous strategy one would take to defeat someone like Zorro?"

"Death, of course." Esmeralda stated.

"But, how? We don't know who he is." Carlos said.

"That won't be necessary." Augusto said.

"Then, how are we supposed to kill him?" William asked.

"I wasn't suggesting that we kill Zorro, I was saying we should frame him." Augusto finally said.

La Liga was listening again. Alejandro's eyes widened at the thought of being framed.

"William will masquerade as the folk hero, and assassinate Governor J. Neely Johnson." Augusto continued. "That shall put a stump in his idea of eradicating vigilantism from California. It will surely turn Zorro into a fugitive."

The members of La Liga smiled at this great plan.

"When do I get to fight, brother?" the huge man said in a deep, gravelly voice.

"Patience, Bronto. When the time comes, you will take as many lives as you wish." Augusto said.

Bronto grinned at the notion.

Alejandro didn't even want to stick around any longer. He'd heard enough. He slowly shut the window, and put a bit of pressure on it. When he felt the glass begin to bend, he suddenly stopped. If he had pushed any harder on the window, the glass would've probably shattered. No matter, though. It was time for him to get out of here.

He turned around, and jumped back down, onto the balcony, before jumping off of that, and landing directly on Toronado's back, before riding off.


	10. Chapter 10

"They are planning to kill the governor." Alejandro said as he paced in front of the burning flame in the fireplace while his and the Chavez family watched him. "They want to frame Zorro."

"So, you're telling me you didn't fight them?" Miguel asked.

"No. I didn't." Alejandro stopped pacing. Miguel stood up.

"When is this assassination supposed to happen?"

"I don't know. I didn't stick around to hear it."

"Then, now is the time to strike."

Miguel prepared to leave again, but Alejandro stood in front of him.

"No. It's best if we wait." he said.

"Are you kidding me?" Miguel asked. "You said Dominguez wants to frame you, and now you don't want to do anything about it?"

"Do you realize how many men were in that room? You'd never make it out of there alive." Alejandro said.

"I'm not going alone. Come on, kids." Miguel called to Santiago and Ana.

"Um, Dad. I don't think that's such a good idea." Santiago said.

Miguel was appalled. He wasn't used to his son disagreeing with his plans.

"What?"

"He's right, Dad." Ana added. "Trying to fight them now, would be a pretty stupid thing to do."

Elena, Joaquin, and Alejandro watched as the Chavez family argued.

"We talked about this before, Santiago. La Liga has to be stopped." Miguel said.

"We wouldn't stand a chance against them!" Santiago yelled. He pointed to the de la Vega's. "Even with their help, we couldn't stop them!"

"All I want is for you and your sister to finally have a normal life, son."

"But, this isn't about us, is it, Dad?" Ana questioned. "Because it sounds to me like you're just looking for revenge."

"What is your obsession with La Liga, anyway, eh?" Alejandro demanded.

"You stay out of this." Miguel pointed his finger to Alejandro.

"What are you trying to hide, Miguel?" Alejandro pressed. "Was it your wife?"

"It's none of your business." Miguel said. It was obviously a touchy subject.

"As long as you're staying in _my_ house, blackmailing me, I'd say it's nothing _but_ my business. It was your wife, wasn't it? Did she leave you?"

Miguel's blood was starting to boil. He already had hated the fact that Alejandro had even mentioned his wife, a woman he'd never even met. But now had the nerve to accuse her of leaving Miguel. Alejandro took the look of anger on Miguel's face as confirmation to his suspicion.

"She did, didn't she?" Alejandro continued. "It was because you were with La Liga, wasn't it? She was fed up with you playing games with her. So, she left you, and instead of blaming yourself, you blamed La Liga."

Miguel stepped a few feet closer until he was near Alejandro's face.

"Shut up." he said.

"Faced with those facts, it seems to me like you brought this entire thing on yourself, Miguel."

Miguel now had his arms crossed. He breathed slowly, trying to contain his anger.

"You know, you talk an awful lot, de la Vega." he said. "I'd watch that mouth if I were you."

"Oh, no. I think it's you who ought to hold your tongue." Alejandro challenged.

"Or what? You'll turn me in? Throw me out? You know how this works. As long as I know your secret, I do what I please."

"Well, I could throw you out." Alejandro sighed. "Or, I could kill you."

The teens, as well as Elena were shocked to hear Alejandro say such a thing. Miguel wasn't phased in the slightest.

"Oh, oh. Is that a fact?" he asked.

"Yes. Now why don't you have a seat?" Alejandro said, slyly.

Miguel shrugged. "Alright."

But instead of sitting, Miguel swiftly sent a right hook into Alejandro's face. This took Alejandro by surprise, but it also filled him with rage, as he grabbed Miguel by the shirt, and kneed him in the stomach before pushing him away.

"So, finally when the truth comes out." Alejandro said before punching Miguel. "You attack like a child. You're even more pathetic than I thought."

Miguel blocked a few attacks, and got in a few good hits, himself.

"Says the man who dresses up like a buffoon every night to fight criminals." he taunted.

Alejandro then gripped Miguel's shoulders and threw him across a table, which caused a few of the china that had been sitting on it to shatter.

"Enough!" Elena shouted.

Miguel stood up, and brushed some of the broken glass off of his shirt as Alejandro took his fighting pose to continue their brawl.

"I can't believe you're actually taking his side, Elena!" Alejandro complained.

Miguel held his hands up, as a sign of a white flag.

"It's fine." he said, indifferently, with his head down. "Alejandro, we'll play it your way."

With that, Miguel walked past everybody, and went upstairs.

Ana, and Santiago were completely mortified. They didn't know what to say, or how to react to what just happened. They had never seen their dad get that angry before.

* * *

Later on, outside of the hacienda Santiago was lying down on a bench, looking up at the stars, smoking a cigarette. He had been thinking a lot about the past few years of his life. How he and Ana had never really had a childhood. The only childhood memories they could dredge up consisted of learning to steal, and sword fight.

Santiago's mind was brought back to reality, as he heard footsteps approaching him. He sat up as he saw Elena walk over to the bench.

"Santiago?" she asked. "Is everything alright?"

"...Yeah." he lied. "I'm fine."

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Elena asked.

"No. Not at all."

He moved over to his right, so that she could have a seat next to him. As she sat, he took another cigarette out of his pocket, and offered it to her.

"Would you like a smoke?" he said politely.

"Oh, no thank you, I do not smoke." she said. Especially after that deal with Armand and that pipe, Elena had never wanted to smoke again.

Santiago shrugged and put the cigarette back in his pocket before taking another drag of his lit one. As he stared off into space, judging by his look, Elena could tell the boy was melancholy.

"You have been through something awful, haven't you?" she asked.

Santiago shot a glance at her, before looking off into the distance again. He sighed deeply, a puff of smoke exited his mouth.

"My dad just makes everything so difficult sometimes." he said.

"I'm sorry." Elena said. "I know how that can be."

The boy said nothing. But, he found it kind of hard to imagine Elena going through anything that could be described as "awful".

"Shortly after I was born, I was taken from my father and raised by one of his enemies." Elena said. Santiago gave her a look of disbelief, but was eager to hear the rest. "For twenty years I lived under the lie that Rafael Montero was my father."

"What happened when you found out the truth?" he asked.

"I was confused. I was not sure what to believe anymore. I wanted to hate my step-father, but I just couldn't. I do not think I ever could. No matter what he had done."

This conversation was kind of throwing Santiago for a loop. He threw his cigarette to the ground and stomped it out.

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"Because you and I are alike. Your father is doing things that you wish he would not. It sometimes makes you think that he may not even love you. But, you need to know deep down, that he does. And no matter what he does, he always will."

Elena placed a hand on Santiago's shoulder to comfort him.

"Everything will be alright." she said.

Touched by the words, Santiago faced Elena.

"Thank you, Elena." he said, before giving her hug. She reciprocated, and kissed him on the head.

She gave him a smile, before getting up and walking back into the hacienda. As Santiago watched her go, he now felt an even deeper connection with her than before.

* * *

Back, at the Dominguez hacienda, Augusto had a hot iron, with an L shaped brander. He drove it into Bronto's wrist, who simply grunted through the pain. Apparently this was his final act before becoming an official member of the terrorist group.

"With whom does your allegiance lie?" Augusto asked.

Bronto raised his head up and said, in a throaty voice:

"La Liga!"


	11. Chapter 11

A few days later, there had been no word on any kind of assassination attempt against the governor, so the others all figured that La Liga planned to strike when everyone least expected it.

Alejandro had gone down to Padre Felipe's church to discuss with him the upcoming problem that Zorro was going to have to face.

"When could the assassination take place?" Alejandro wondered as he stood in the back room.

"The governor is giving a speech in town in a few days, you should probably be ready for when that happens." Felipe suggested.

"The speech. That's right! I had forgotten all about that." Alejandro said. "That'd be the perfect time to make a move."

"Are you sure you know what you're up against, Alejandro?"

"I don't need to be sure. All I need to do is keep the governor from getting killed."

Alejandro walked over to a table where there sat a couple of glasses, and some wine. He poured the glasses with the red elixir and handed one to Felipe. They tapped their glasses together in a toast, before drinking.

"What about that bank they said they were building?" Felipe asked. "Could that have anything to do with the governor?"

"I hope not." Alejandro said. "Maybe it's part of a whole other plan, entirely."

"Perhaps you should go back to their hacienda. Listen in again on one of their meetings. You might get more information on what they're plotting."

"Do you know how close I came last time to getting caught? There's no way I'm going back there."

"Take someone with you. Joaquin is old enough by now, right?"

Alejandro was tired of having to explain this to people.

"Joaquin is not ready for this yet, Felipe." Alejandro insisted. "He is still too young."

He grabbed his coat to leave.

"Joaquin isn't going to be 'too young' forever, Alejandro." Felipe said.

Alejandro turned to face his friend. "Ring the bell, in case anything happens. Until then, I'll be awaiting the governor's speech."

"Good luck." Felipe added before Alejandro left the church.

* * *

A few days later, when it came the day for Governor J. Neely Johnson's speech, nearly the entire population of San Francisco county had turned out to the town square to listen . It had been a rough time in the past couple of years in California. Citizens had grown tired with the way the police handled, or rather _didn't_ handle law enforcement. Some were inspired by Zorro to take up crime fighting as a way to minimize criminal activity. However, rather than simply roughing up the outlaws and sending them to jail like Zorro, several vigilantes hanged criminals as a way to scare them off.

J. Neely Johnson, the governor of California, and had been since a year before, stood there, dressed in his best, ready to give his speech on extinguishing vigilantism, as well as lowering the crime rate, while the de la Vega's and the Chavez family blended in with the crowd of people, watching to see if anyone acted suspicious.

"Good morning, my fellow Americans." Johnson addressed the crowd. "I wish I could stand here today before you, on better terms. But, unfortunately, we have a crisis on our hands."

The crowd continued listening, while Alejandro and the others looked around at everyone.

"In the last few years, at least 8 people have been unlawfully hanged by the San Francisco Vigilantes" the governor continued. "I am here to announce my regret that I had been unable to prevent such gruesome executions. In the United States of America, our criminal justice system believes first and foremost, that the punishment needs to fit the crime, but at the same time, we ask that citizens do not take the law into their own hands."

Some of the crowed murmured things under their breath, such as "hypocrite", and "Zorro". Governor Johnson had never had a problem with Zorro. Quite the contrary, actually. He, along with several Californians saw Zorro as an ally.

After trying to inconspicuously walk through the crowd of people to detect any suspicious behavior, Alejandro walked back over to his family, and the Chavez's.

"It's been over 10 minutes. Maybe they won't try anything. Did you notice anyone acting strange?" Alejandro asked them.

"No." Joaquin said.

"We need to keep our eyes open. They're here somewhere." Miguel suggested.

"Yeah, they could be hiding." Ana added.

Alejandro nodded his head, he began turning his head in every direction, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Joaquin also joined in looking around. Miguel, Elena, Ana and Santiago watched the governor, pretending to be listening to his speech.

"And that is exactly why, I intend to dismantle the need for vigilantism, while also keeping the crime rate at an all time low." Johnson said.

The crowd applauded, but not everyone cheered. To them, it sounded like he wanted to get rid of vigilantes, but he wasn't saying exactly what he planned to do to make it happen.

Neither Alejandro, nor Joaquin could see anything suspicious going on. Maybe La Liga wasn't planning to attack here, and they were just being paranoid. But, if they wanted to make a point, assassinating the governor during a speech to defeat crime, now would be the perfect time.

Alejandro and Joaquin whispered to each other in the crowd.

"Anything?"

"Nothing."

Little did they know, that directly across the from where the speech being given, William, who was dressed up in a Zorro costume that perfectly mimicked Alejandro's, hid at the top of a small building, with a sharps rifle in his hand.

"And, although Zorro has been a friend and servant to us here, it has still not been enough, ladies and gentlemen." Governor Johnson said. "Real action has to be taken. We must not continue to rely solely on a so-called folk hero to clean up our streets."

Joaquin then decided that maybe whoever they were looking for wasn't in the crowd, and turned his back to the podium, looking towards the buildings behind him. He didn't notice anything at first, but after a second, something caught his eye shot. He could faintly see someone wearing a black sombrero, and holding a rifle, aiming straight at the governor.

Joaquin gasped to himself. What was he gonna do? What was he gonna do? Tell the others? That wouldn't really do anything. The guy could pull the trigger at any second. Thinking quickly, he remembered something. He reached into his back pocket, and pulled out his slingshot, and a rock. Without alarming anyone, and going seemingly unnoticed to the mysterious gunman on the roof, Joaquin took special aim.

He only had one shot at this, so he had to make it count. He pulled the sling back as tight as he could, and only prayed that he would make it. He closed his eyes, and released, sending the rock into the air.

Simultaneously with William attempting to pull the trigger, he was hit in the face with the rock. He was caught off guard, as he fired the gun.

The entire crowd heard it, and screamed. Alejandro as well as the others turned around, and noticed Joaquin with his slingshot.

The crowd panicked even more when they saw the governor lying on the ground. His body guards tended to him, and noticed that he was still conscious. William had missed his shot. Though, not completely, as Governor Johnson had a mild injury to his left arm.

The fake Zorro on top of the building looked on at the crowd, and began laughing loudly, which caused the crowd to look at him again.

He took out a match and lit it, before dropping it to the sand. On the ground, the match's flame spread, until it formed a huge, burning Z. Apparently, William had set this up hours ago.

The crowd stood in awe, as "Zorro" turned and ran, jumping from building to building, until he was out of sight.

Alejandro, and Elena couldn't believe it. How could they not have seen this coming? This was just perfect. Now, Zorro would get blamed for this.

Joaquin, Santiago, and Ana looked at each other. Miguel just watched on with the rest of the crowd. It looked like everyone had reached the end of their rope here.

* * *

Two days later, a headline came in the paper:

"CITIZENS CALL FOR THE ARREST OF THE VIGILANTE KNOWN AS ZORRO FOLLOWING THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF GOVERNOR J. NEELY JOHNSON."


	12. Chapter 12

It had been a day since the calling for Zorro's arrest had been in the newspaper, and although Governor Johnson had survived the attack, La Liga saw the failed attempt as "good enough", since it was unlikely that Johnson would trust Zorro again. The Chavez family as well as the de la Vega's knew anything but what to do next. That morning, after breakfast, they all just sat there at the dining table, at a loss for words until Alejandro decided to speak.

"So, what now?"

No one spoke. Miguel looked particularly down in the dumps today.

"I don't know." he sighed. "Nothing, I guess."

"Nothing?" Alejandro asked. "How can you say that?"

"Alejandro." Elena said. She didn't want this to turn into another argument.

"Perhaps we should just take the day off." Miguel suggested.

This surprised them all. It seemed that ever since Miguel revealed who he was to the de la Vega's, all he cared about was taking down La Liga.

"Take the day off?" Alejandro again questioned. "You were the one who started all this, Miguel. And now that the people think Zorro has turned against them, it makes everything more difficult. How could you possibly want to take a break now?"

"That's exactly my point, Alejandro. Things _are_ more difficult now. That little stunt La Liga pulled will probably ruin things for Governor Johnson by the time election day comes."

"So, why do we do nothing now?" Elena asked.

"It's the 4th of July. I heard there's a festival in town today. And I think it'd be fun for the kids if they went." Miguel said.

"Festival? Have you gone insane?" Alejandro said. "In case you haven't noticed, we have more important matters than 'fun' at the moment."

"Dad. Are you feeling okay?" Santiago asked.

"Of course, son. I'm fine."

"Miguel, we have to stay on track, and look at our options" Alejandro said.

"And what would those be?" Miguel said, standing up. "In case _you _haven't noticed, Alejandro, we don't _have_ any options. It's Independence Day, and these children deserve to relax for a little. We don't need to strain anymore muscles for now. Just take a siesta, and we'll figure it out later."

The others realized that they actually had been overdoing it a bit lately. They really had nothing to go on right now. They couldn't just go ahead and attack La Liga. They'd get torn apart.

"He may be right, darling." Elena said to Alejandro.

"I am right." Miguel corrected. "Now, you kids all go out, and have fun or something."

"Can you really be serious?" Alejandro asked.

Everyone just stared at him, as if he were overreacting. He put his hands up.

"You people are too much for me." he said before turning his back, and exiting the room.

Given the state of things, the others at the table figured that this was as good a time as any to just kick back like Miguel had said.

"Well, what will you all be doing today, then?" Elena smiled as she asked the teens.

Santiago paused.

"Well, I'll probably go over to the bar later, but I think I'll just stay in today." he said.

He then nudged Joaquin's arm with his elbow, indicating that he should ask Ana. Joaquin understood, and decided to take this opportunity that had been stolen from him at Dominguez's party.

"Um, Ana? Um, I, uh..." Joaquin muttered.

Ana just studied the nervous look on his face, and felt a little confused.

"Yes?" she said.

"Do you wanna...go into town with me today, and I don't know, talk a bit?"

Ana formed a small smile as she gathered what Joaquin had been wanting to say.

"Oh. I'd love to." she said.

"Really? Great." Joaquin smiled.

Santiago and Elena grinned at each other.

* * *

A few hours later, Ana and Joaquin walked through town, talking to each other about various things. The weather, food, sword fighting. You know, the usual stuff.

"So, what was it like traveling across the country all your life?" Joaquin asked.

"'Traveling'?" Ana said. "You almost make it sound like vacation or something."

"I don't know. I mean. What was it like before?"

Ana was stumped.

"I can't remember. It's been like this ever since I was three. The first thing I can recall is always living on the lam."

"You mean, you don't even remember your mom?"

Ana shook her head. The look on her face showed that it was something that bothered her.

"I wish I could, you know?" she said. "But whenever I try to, I end up drawing a blank."

This actually kind of made Joaquin feel sad. He had both of his parents, and he never realized how much he took them for granted. Ana had absolutely no memory of her own mother. It must have been hard.

"You and Santiago seem to be pretty close." Joaquin said.

"Yeah, well, we kind of have to be. Dad's main priority, as you know, is stopping La Liga. There hasn't been much time for bonding in my family. Sure, he calls me pet names sometimes, but the connection isn't always there."

Joaquin was beginning to regret asking Ana about herself. It seemed like everything that had to do with her life was just downright depressing.

"So, what about you, Joaquin?" Ana asked. "How is your family 'clicking'?"

"Eh, it's been a little on and off, lately." Joaquin answered. "Mostly with my dad."

"Why, are you mad at your dad about something?"

"Well, I'm not _mad_ at my dad. It's just...we don't have anything in common."

Ana couldn't believe the boy had just said that. She stopped walking, which caused Joaquin to also, and stare at her.

"What?" he asked.

"Oh, please. Have you seen yourself lately?" she said. "You guys look nearly identical, you're both good fighters, and you idolize Zorro. You're really gonna tell me you and your dad have nothing in common?"

Joaquin smiled. He guessed Ana was right. When he thought about it, Joaquin did actually dream of being more like his dad. He shrugged his shoulders, and the two of them began walking again.

"You know, when I was younger. On some nights when my dad's duty didn't call, I'd sneak out after everyone went to sleep and ride Toronado across the desert, and pretend I was Zorro."

"And, when's the last time you did that?"

"It's been a while."

"Would you...take me out riding on Toronado, sometime?" she smiled.

"Sure. If you'd like."

This wasn't so bad. It was getting easier and easier for Joaquin to talk to Ana. She seemed to also be pretty interested in him, as well. So far, so good. It seemed like things were once again too good to be true, as soon as Ana spoke.

"Hey, check it out." she said, pointing to something.

Joaquin's eyes looked toward what Ana had pointed out, and saw across from them, wallet, hanging out of the back pocket of a man.

"Okay, watch this." Ana smiled, and walked away from Joaquin.

It took a moment to register in Joaquin's brain what Ana was about to do. As he watched her step closer and closer to the man, he realized that he had to stop her. He quickly ran over to her, and pulled her to the side, and into an ally.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ana protested.

"What am _I _doing? What are _you_ doing?" Joaquin said back. "You were gonna steal that guy's wallet."

Ana looked confused.

"...And your point would be?" she asked sincerely.

There was clearly a problem here. It must have come with her upbringing. Ana really didn't care about the fact that she had tried to rob someone. Back when she was little, she discovered that she had a talent for pickpocketing, ever since then, Miguel had encouraged her to employ it whenever she wanted. It then dawned on Joaquin, that she and her family may not have been wanting to stop La Liga because of their thievery, they were simply after revenge.

"Listen. You can't go around taking other people's money." Joaquin said.

"Why?"

"'_Why_'? Because it's wrong. I can't believe I even have to go through this with you, Ana. I mean, if you keep stealing from people, you'll turn out just like La Liga."

"No, I won't."

"Yes, you will! God! Does Santiago steal this much too?"

"Not really. I'm the best at it, so when we need money, I'm usually the one to take it."

"Yeah, well, it needs to stop. One day, you'll get yourself into trouble." Joaquin pressed.

"Okay, okay. I'll stop, alright? Don't get so rattled, jeez. You _are_ like your dad" Ana said.

That comment made Joaquin blush a bit.

"I am not." he argued.

Ana smiled,and nodded her head.

"Mm-hmm." she said as they walked out of the ally, and back into the crowd of people.

"You'd better watch it, Joaquin. I just might take your wallet next." Ana said, and walked past him.

Joaquin then considered the possibility, and checked his clothes, and belt, but couldn't find his wallet. He started to panic, before he noticed it being tossed back to him by Ana, who chuckled at her little joke. She really was good at pickpocketing.

"Okay, now you're starting to scare me." Joaquin said.

"So, how about that ride on your horse?" Ana asked. "Do you wanna take it now?"

Joaquin smiled. This girl was just full of surprises.

* * *

At the hacienda, Alejandro, and Elena were in the library, going through a few of the books. For the last 10 minutes that they had been in there, Alejandro had not said a word to his wife. He just kept sorting books into their proper place, while she stared back at him while putting away books of her own.

"So, I take it you are not speaking to me." she said.

"Why would I bother?" Alejandro asked. He had secretly been waiting for an excuse to speak. "It doesn't matter what I say, you'll just side with Miguel."

"I do not see what you have against him in the first place."

Alejandro turned to face Elena.

"What I have against him, is the fact that he cares only about himself." he said. "He brought this whole problem on himself. He blackmails me, and won't even tell me his clear intentions."

"Perhaps he finds it too painful to talk about" Elena argued back. "Remember when you lost your brother?"

He was stopped in his tracks. He again remembered how painful it was to watch his brother, Joaquin die, and that he was powerless to stop it.

"Miguel understands that he made a mistake." Elena continued. "He is trying to make up for it."

Alejandro put his head down a bit, and realized that he was being a little overcritical. Elena walked closer to him.

"He is also right." she said. "You are under a lot of stress, Alejandro. You need to relax."

She cupped his cheek in her hand. Alejandro chuckled.

"How? By going to the carnival like Joaquin?" he said. Elena smiled.

"I remember the way he looked at Ana today." she said, moving in closer. "It reminded me of you and I."

They brought their heads closer, and entered a short, passionate kiss. When it ended, they rested their foreheads against each other.

"Take it easy, my love." Elena said. "Zorro will have his day. But for now, let us rest."

Alejandro smiled.

"Be nice if you did that somewhere other than the library, don't you think?" they heard someone say.

They turned their heads to the entrance, and saw Miguel standing there. Elena and Alejandro quickly separated, not knowing how much Miguel had seen or heard of their conversation.

"Sorry to interrupt, Elena. But, I'd like to talk to your husband in private, please." Miguel continued.

The husband and wife looked at each other. But, rather than Elena leave the room, Alejandro walked out into the hallway with Miguel, until they were out of Elena's earshot. Alejandro crossed his arms, and listened intently, as Miguel looked serious.

"...I owe you an apology." Miguel said.

That sentence had earned Alejandro's confused face.

"For what happened the other night." Miguel continued. "You were right, I have been taking this business with La Liga to more of an extreme than I originally had imagined, and I'm sorry for that."

Alejandro didn't know what to say to that.

"It's...alright, I suppose." he said.

"I know I've been a rather...ungrateful tenant here, and the last thing I want to do is to make you feel like you have to take orders from me." Miguel added. "My children and I staying here is most likely more than a burden for you, but I want you to know that it does not go unappreciated."

Unusual. What was with this sudden change in attitude? Miguel had been acting weird all morning.

"Listen." Alejandro decided to speak. "I'm not trying to make you feel guilty for..."

Miguel cut him off.

"You know, I could really go for a nice tequila. How about I buy you a drink?"

Okay. Now, this was really starting to get weird. It was bad enough that Miguel had it in him to apologize to Alejandro, but now he was offering to buy him a drink? Was it somebody's birthday?

Knowing that Alejandro would never pass up a free drink, he slowly nodded his head, and said: "Sure."

* * *

After they had gone home, and sneaked Toronado out of the barn, Ana and Joaquin rode through the desert as the sun began to set. Joaquin steered the horse in front, while Ana held onto him in the back. Even though she had been on a horse several times before, Ana felt like this was something new. Whether it was because it was with Joaquin, or not, she didn't care. She liked where she was at. After a while, when the sun had fully set, Joaquin asked if Ana would like to go to the carnival now. She responded with an optimistic yes.

When they got to the festival, they tied Toronado up where the rest of the horses were, and joined in the festivities. Most of the town had turned out for it. They all danced to the Spanish folk music that the band had been playing, there were lots eating, drinking and playing games. Joaquin even finally got to dance with Ana, since the chance had gotten stolen from him by Carlos that night at the Domiquez party. Ana was thoroughly enjoying herself. It was like for the first time in a long while, she felt like a real teenager. With each progressing moment, the two of them found out more about each other. As they slow danced, Joaquin had been discussing his life thus far.

"I kind of wish I was more like you, though." he said.

"Why?" Ana asked.

"You get to travel the world. Get down and dirty. Your life sounds like an adventure. I never get to do anything fun like that."

Ana felt a little offended by that final word. She probably should have figured as much. Only a rich kid would think the ideal life was roughin' it. It all sounds so tempting, when you're not being forced to live like that.

"Fun?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Moving from place to place isn't always as fun as you think it is, Joaquin. And some of your 'adventures' may turn out sour."

"What do you mean?" Joaquin asked.

"...I guess I've always just wanted a normal life, you know?" Ana said. "The novelty of being a vagabond kind of wears off after a couple years."

"I guess you're right. It might get a little boring after a while."

"Boring. And heartbreaking."

"Hmm?"

Ana didn't answer that. She just had a sad expression on her face then. But before Joaquin could ask her about it, at least 4 other teenage boys, who clearly had more than enough to drink that night approached them.

"Well, well, well. What have we here, boys?" one of them said.

"Hey, what's a beautiful girl like you, doing in a place like this?" another guy asked.

"_Not_ dancing with you, that's for sure." Ana said, keeping her attention on Joaquin.

"Hey, uh, why don't you lose the putz, and come with us?" the first boy said, again. He played a little with Ana's hair, which made her blood boil.

"Yeah. We'll treat you right. Promise." the third boy said.

Joaquin had had enough, and turned around to face the drunken idiots.

"Didn't you hear her? She said no. Now, why don't you guys get lost?" he said.

"Come on, just one dance. How about it?" another boy pressed.

"Hey, look. I already told you. Back off." Joaquin added.

The other boys looked at each other, and smiled, and "oohed" at each other. The first boy stepped closer to Joaquin's face. Joaquin could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Why don't you... make us?" he said.

"Yeah." the other boys agreed, standing there, trying to look tough.

"Fine." Joaquin said. "How about we race?"

A few minutes later, out in the desert, Joaquin and Ana sat on Toronado's back while the pack of boys sat on their own horses. The boys and Joaquin had worked out a little bet. If the boy's horses could beat Toronado to the rock formation that stood about 700 meters away from them, Ana would have to have a dance with all of them. But, if Joaquin won, they'd leave them alone. This was the perfect way to impress Ana, Joaquin thought.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Ana whispered to Joaquin.

"Yeah. Trust me." he said back.

Little did either Ana or Joaquin know that prior to the race, one of the boys had undone one of Toronado's saddle billets.

When the race began, the horses started out in a matched speed. Before long though, Toronado's stamina started to prevail. But, the fact that one of the billets had been undone made the saddle feel insecure for both Joaquin and Ana. He slowed Toronado down a bit out of fear of falling off. The other boy's horses began to take the lead. Ana then looked to Toronado's side and noticed that the saddle had been unbuckled.

"Joaquin, look!" she pointed out to him.

He looked down at it for a moment and realized when he had to do. This was gonna be tricky.

"Here, take the reigns!" he passed them to Ana.

Then, in an unbelievably swift move, Joaquin swung his right leg over to the left side of the horse, so it was like he was sitting on a couch, he then bent himself down a little, made his feet touch the ground before side-flipping backwards, and behind Ana. A move that Alejandro had taught him. Which he had once employed a long time ago while fleeing from Rafael Montero's men. Joaquin then bent down, and fixed the undone billet.

He turned himself around again, and took the reigns back from Ana, and proceeded to make Toronado run faster. The horse began gaining on the others again, before surpassing them completely. About 20 seconds later, Toronado reached the rock foundation before any of the others did.

This victory caused Joaquin and Ana to laugh at their near failure. They got down off the horse, and hugged each other tightly in celebration. When the other boys caught up to them, and got off of their horses, they didn't look too happy.

"Well. It looks like you boys lost." Joaquin said, putting his arm on Ana's shoulder.

"Hmm. I guess we did." the leader said, feigning acceptance.

As Ana and Joaquin tried to walk away, the leader drew out a small pistol, ready to fire. But, since having the reflexes of Zorro, Joaquin was able to sense this. He turned around swiftly, and knocked the gun out of the boy's hand before punching him down. That was the cue for the other 3 boys to attack. Joaquin easily took them on. He was just way too fast for them. Definitely an improvement since he had fought those men 6 years ago. Watching all of this happen made Ana think, maybe Joaquin actually was cut out to be Zorro.

After they had all been knocked to the ground, holding their limbs, too beaten to keep fighting, Ana shot Joaquin a smirk.

"What?" he asked.

"...I could've done that." she said.

She then thought of something else.

"Hey, quick. Check their pockets for money."

Joaquin then shot her an annoyed look.

"Kidding." she said.

"So, do you, uh, wanna go back to the festival now?" Joaquin asked.

"Actually, I think I could use a drink."

* * *

And that was that. They got back on Toronado, and rode to the bar. When they got there, they tied the horse to the trough with the rest, Joaquin and Ana stood outside the bar. They stared at each other, neither one of them knowing what to say.

"So, this is it." Joaquin said.

"Yeah." Ana replied. "I had fun today. Thanks."

"Ana?"

"Mmhmm?"

Joaquin paused when Ana gave him a smile. He chuckled a bit, feeling a bit bashful.

"I...you know...I really like you." he finally said.

"...I like you too, Joaquin."

"Okay. Great. Uh...Well, if I like you, and you like me..."

They moved in closer to each other.

"Maybe we could, do this again some time." Joaquin suggested.

"We could...maybe."

Their faces got closer and closer. But, as soon as their lips were about to connect, Ana pulled away.

"No. No, I'm sorry, Joaquin." she said.

"What? What's wrong?" he asked.

"This is all happening so fast. I just...I-I can't."

"Can't what? Is it me? I thought you liked me."

"I do! It's just."

It seemed like Ana was on the verge of tears.

"I can't do this. Not now." she said. "I'm sorry."

She turned to leave.

"Wait. Where are you going?" Joaquin asked, worried.

"I have to go figure this out. I'm so sorry for ruining your night. I just- I need to go." Ana said, wiping a tear.

"But, Ana. I-"

"Please don't follow me."

Ana then walked off into the night. In case you couldn't tell, Joaquin was confused as all hell. What was up with her? One minute she's having the time of her life, and the next she's about to cry over something as little as a kiss.

In any case, Joaquin decided to go into the bar and find Santiago.


	13. Chapter 13

Joaquin stepped into the bar, and saw that his father, as well as Miguel, sitting at a table, going shot for shot with a bottle of whiskey together.

At the bar counter, Joaquin found Santiago, sitting there counting what appeared to be money, while also drinking a few shots. Joaquin walked over and sat next to him.

"Hey, buddy. What's going on?" Santiago asked.

"Not much." Joaquin said. "Where'd you get all that money?"

"Oh. I won it at poker. Well, actually, I cheated, but..."

Santiago noticed the sad look on his friend's face.

"You okay? You seem a little down in the mouth." he asked.

"It's just, uh..." Joaquin mumbled. "Has your sister always been so-"

"Oh, yes. _Always_." Santiago cut him off.

At Miguel, and Alejandro's table, the latter had been recounting his past as they drank.

"That was when Zorro gave my brother his medallion." Alejandro said. "He ended the War of Independence that day."

"He sounded like a great man." Miguel said, before taking another shot.

"He was."

"So how is it that you became Zorro?"

Alejandro poured more whiskey into the shot glasses.

"Twenty years later, after one of Montero's men killed my brother..." Alejandro paused. It was still painful to mention, even though it had been many, many years ago. "Don Diego took me in, and taught me to fight."

Miguel listened while de la Vega laid it all down.

Back at the counter, Joaquin and Santiago continued their conversation.

"I mean, I went in to kiss her, and I thought she wanted me to." Joaquin said. "But, then she backed down and sort of stormed off."

"Oh, she's been like that for a while. Ever since..." Santiago began.

When his pause left a lot to be desired, Joaquin decided to press the issue.

"Ever since what?" he said.

"Well...see about a year ago, we were living around New York and places like that. There was this old shack that we slept in. And Ana met this guy in town. She really liked him, too. She'd have to either sneak out at night to see him, or agree to meet someplace, because she didn't want him to know how she really lived." Santiago said. "One day, Dad heard a rumor that La Liga had hit somewhere south, and he made us leave that same night. Ana never even got to say goodbye to the boy. I don't think she's ever really forgiven Dad for it either."

Joaquin took this all in, and it began to make sense. Ana was afraid to start something real with him. She was worried that if Miguel got wind of La Liga leaving or something, he would force her and Santiago to leave with him. Something else didn't make sense though.

"Well, why did you give me advice about her, then?" he asked.

"I...was kind of hoping that when this is all over...Ana could stay with you and your family." Santiago said.

Before Joaquin could ask why, Santiago continued.

"She's had enough of living a nomadic life. She needs to stay in one place for a change." he said. "Me and my Dad would be okay on our own. Ana deserves this. It's the least she could get after losing her childhood."

"...She told me that she doesn't remember her mother." Joaquin said.

Santiago nodded.

"That's right."

"Do you?"

"...Yeah. Bits and pieces here and there."

"What was she like?"

"She was a lot like...your mother."

Joaquin was a bit caught off guard by that.

Back at the other table, after downing a few more shots, Alejandro had finished telling Miguel his story.

"So, what about you?" Alejandro asked. "How did your life come to be like this, eh?"

Apparently it was the alcohol that gave Alejandro the courage to even ask that question. More astonishingly, the whiskey had also given Miguel the courage to tell the story. After a heavy pause, he began to speak.

"...It started 12 years ago."

At the counter, Santiago and Joaquin kept talking.

"I know it sounds strange, but whenever I look at your mom, she reminds me of mine." Santiago continued.

Is that why he always seemed to be nervous around Elena? Because she had reminded Santiago of his mother?

Okay. It was time to get things straight, and clear. Joaquin had been dying to ask this ever since he'd met the Chavez family.

"...What happened to your mother, Santiago?" he asked.

* * *

_12 years ago..._

_In a deep cavern, Miguel Chavez stood in the midst of a circle of 9 dark hooded men. He wore a black cloak of his own, although both his hood, and mask were down. He had reached the final stage of joining La Liga. Looking for thrills and adventure, he had searched them out to learn their ways and join them. After an intense 6 months of training to fight and steal, Miguel was ready to begin his last trial before becoming an official member. _

_As stated earlier, Miguel did not know who the hooded men are, and he had yet to see them unmasked. In the circle, the leader stepped forward. _

"_Miguel Chavez. Our new brother." Augusto's voice said behind the hooded mask."With whom does your allegiance lie?" _

"_La Liga!" Miguel declared. _

"_Brothers!" the hooded leader called. "With whom does your allegiance lie?" _

"_La Liga!" the rest of the hooded men shouted. _

"_You have now been accepted into the circle." Augusto said. "But first, you must prove to us that you are willing to show no mercy. Bring forth the condemned!" _

_One of the members left the circle for a moment. Miguel wondered what he was supposed to do now. He'd already stolen a hundred dollars worth of gold, ransacked a house, and even tortured a man for information. When the hooded member came back, Miguel's eyes widened. _

"_No, please, don't!" cried a young, pregnant woman, around the age of hooded member pulled her along by her arm, and made her drop to her knees in front of Miguel. _

_She had long, dark hair, in a braid, olive skin, and brown eyes. She appeared to be in her final trimester of pregnancy. The look of fear in her eyes, and the tears streaming down her face made it difficult for Miguel to even look at her. It was even more unbelievable for him, when the leader handed him a knife. _

"_...What is this?" Miguel questioned. "You want me to kill her?" _

"_The last thing La Liga needs is a member who takes prisoners." Augusto said, coldly. "We must avoid discovery at all costs." _

"_But she hasn't done anything. Why kill her?" Miguel began to raise his voice. _

"_Fastidious members are another thing we cannot abide, Mr. Chavez. Make your choice."_

_Miguel thought about this a long while. They couldn't possibly expect him to take this young girl's life. She hadn't done anything wrong. She was innocent. There was no financial gain whatsoever, so why do it? Could it be that La Liga just took pleasure out of killing and causing mayhem?_

_He stepped closer to the girl, who stared at him with pleading eyes. Tears streamed rapidly down her cheeks. _

"_Please...please don't. Please." she cried. _

_Miguel raised the knife, ready to strike. But, his conscience got the better of him, and he dropped the weapon. The girl sighed in relief. _

"_I...I can't do it." Miguel said. _

_The other members couldn't believe it. Since when did Miguel ever back down from what they had asked him to do?_

"_I'm sorry." Miguel repeated. "I just can't." _

_The masked Augusto stepped over to Miguel, and placed a hand on his shoulder. _

"_You can't do it?" he asked him. "...Okay. Well then, perhaps you need a little demonstration" _

_Swiftly, Augusto pulled a gun out of his pocket, and shot the girl in the head. _

"_NOOO!" Miguel shouted at the top of his lungs, as the girl fell to the ground dead._

_He looked to the hooded leader in utter shock. _

"_She was pregnant." Miguel said. "How could you?...You're evil. You're all evil." _

_"I do not think of it as being 'evil', my friend." Augusto said. "I think of it as being willing to make sacrifices."_

_Miguel put his hands up. He could barely even get words out anymore. _

"_I'm-I'm out." he said. "I'm done." _

"_What?" Augusto asked, in disbelief. _

"_I am finished with this." Miguel repeated as he began to walk away. "I quit. I've seen this organization for what it really is, and I'm done." _

"_You can't just simply walk out of here, and expect absolutely no kind of reprisal." Augusto added. _

_Miguel stopped, and turned to face the masked leader. _

"_I had so much more faith in you, Miguel." Augusto said. "Such a shame it all has to go to waste."_

"_Stay away from me and my family." Miguel said. _

"_Is that a threat?" Augusto said. _

"_You're damn right it is." _

_Miguel turned and began exiting the cave. _

_"You're dead, Chavez!" Augusto shouted loudly. "You're DEAD! YOU'RE DEAD, AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE IS DEAD TOO! IT DOESN'T END HERE!"_

_Miguel quickly rushed home, to his hacienda. It was night by the time he got there. It was a nice place. A perfect estate for raising a small family. Miguel ran inside, to find his beautiful wife, Lenore sitting in a chair in the living room. She was as beautiful as Elena. She had the same hair, skin tone, and eyes. It was no wonder Elena had reminded Santiago so much of her._

_Miguel looked at her, and rushed past, headed to his bedroom. _

"_Pack your things, Lenore." he said._

_"What are you doing home so early?" she asked. She stood up and followed him into the room._

_He took out a suitcase, and began packing, very quickly._

"_Miguel? What's wrong?" Lenore asked. _

_He ignored her and continued packing. Obviously, he had not told her anything about his affairs with La Liga, or the fact that they were most likely headed there to kill them._

"_We've gotta get out of here." Miguel said. "Where are Santiago and Anamaria?"_

"_They're sleeping in their rooms. Miguel, what is it?" Lenore asked, putting her hands on her husband's back to try to calm him down. _

_He shrugged her hands off, and continued putting clothes in the suitcase. _

"_Okay, stop." Lenore said, putting her hand over his to stop him. "What is happening?" _

"_Lenore, please. I will explain everything later, I promise. But, right now I need you to get our children. This is _very_ important." Miguel said._

_The serious, worried look on Miguel's face made it very easy for Lenore to believe him. _

"_Do you trust me?" Miguel asked her. _

"_I trust you." Lenore answered. _

_She reached out, put her hands on his face, and kissed him hard before she exited the room, to go wake up Ana._

_A few moments later, after Miguel had put enough clothes into the suitcase, he heard Lenore scream. He turned and ran to his daughter Ana's room. When he saw the hooded, masked leader of La Liga, holding Lenore in a headlock, with a knife in his other hand. Next to them, lying in a crib, was a 3-year-old Ana. She was crying in the midst of all this._

"_You see, this is why you shouldn't have made that foolish choice, Miguel." Augusto said. _

"_Miguel...help me. Please." Lenore cried. _

_It was a horrible feeling. Being unable to help her. Miguel didn't understand how he could've gotten into this mess. _

"_Lenore, everything will be alright." he assured her. He then focused on the hooded leader. _

"_Please, let her go. I'll do whatever you want." he pleaded. _

"_What I want. Is to see you suffer." the leader said. _

_He then plunged the blade into Lenore's heart, right before Miguel's eyes. _

_"No!" he screamed, as she dropped to the floor. _

_Miguel ran to her, and cradled her head in his arms._

"_Lenore. No. Please. You'll be alright, you'll make it." Miguel pleaded. _

_Lenore gurgled as blood started coming out of her mouth. With in a few seconds, she bled to death. _

_As tears streamed down his face, Miguel screamed, and lunged at the hooded leader. They began a short brawl, with punches, and kicks, until eventually they were forced out into the living room. The leader took out his sword, and Miguel drew his. They dueled swiftly and dangerously. Miguel was on the offense especially since he had been filled with such a rage he'd never even felt before. However, the masked Augusto was more skilled. In an instant, he punched Miguel in the face, which sent him backwards, and hitting his head on the wall, knocking him unconscious. _

_The leader approached him._

"_I want you to know." he said. "It's a real shame to have to kill someone with so much potential._

_A few minutes later, Miguel could feel someone nudging his shoulder. He could also smell smoke. _

"_Daddy!" a young boy's voice said, before coughing. "Daddy, wake up!" _

_When Miguel opened his eyes, he saw the 5-year-old Santiago standing over him. _

"_Daddy!" young Santiago yelled again. _

_Miguel sat up, to discover that more than half of the house around him was in flames. Santiago coughed a few more times, before Miguel stood. _

"_Oh, no!" Miguel screamed. "Ana!" _

_He quickly grabbed Santiago's hand, and led him over the flames and into Ana's room, where the fire had not burned yet. On the floor, still laid Lenore's body. Ana by now was still crying, and coughing from the smoke._

"_Mama!" Santiago cried. "Mama, please wake up!" _

_He began sobbing. Miguel reached into Ana's crib and picked her up. He reached down for Santiago's hand._

"_Come on! Let's get out of here!" he said._

"_But, what about Mama?" Santiago said in tears. _

"_Santiago! Let's go, now!" Miguel ordered. _

_When the child wouldn't take his hand, Miguel grabbed him and swung him over his shoulder. The boy still cried for his mother. _

"_No! Mama, please! Dad, put me down!" Santiago hollered as he was dragged through the house. _

_When they finally reached the front door, Miguel burst out with his children, all three coughing from the flames. When they got to a safe enough distance, they turned to watch their home burn down. All the while, neither Santiago, nor Ana ceased their crying._

* * *

As Santiago finished, Joaquin sat there, completely overwhelmed. What a horrible tragedy. It almost made him think if that were him. Would something similar happen if an enemy were to find out who his father was? After a long silence, Santiago wiped tears that had been forming under his eyes, and spoke.

"At least that's the way my dad describes it." he said, before sniffling. "I don't remember absolutely everything."

Joaquin only half believed that. It must've been a horrifying thing to remember. Santiago must have been telling himself that the vivid memories were fake ones, simply because they were too terrible to imagine actually happening to a 5 year old.

"And, that's all she wrote." Santiago said. "Since then, we've been on the road."

It wasn't that simple though.

"Are you okay?" Joaquin asked, putting his arm on Santiago's shoulder.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I think I'm getting a little drunk, that's all. How about we quit, hmm?"

With that, the boys stood up, and began heading towards the door. They stopped by their dad's table to say goodnight. Coincidentally, Miguel had just finished recounting the same story to Alejandro, whose face looked just as shocked as Joaquin's had been.

"We're uh, heading home now, Dad." Joaquin said to Alejandro.

Alejandro suddenly snapped out of it, and looked at his son.

"O-okay. Goodnight, son." he said.

"Yeah, don't drink too much." Santiago said to his father.

And with that, they exited the bar, leaving Alejandro once again heavily affected by Miguel's story. One thing that Alejandro could tell that went without mention was that today was the anniversary of that night. No wonder Miguel had seemed so different all day.

"I...am so sorry." Alejandro said.

Miguel sat there, with tears forming in his eyes, but his face reflected stoicism.

"So, after that, I began training my children. Taught them to fight, the same way La Liga taught me." Miguel said. "But, I guess I've taken it too far. My own children are beginning to hate me. Last year, Ana threatened to run away, after I forced her to leave a boy she'd met."

Alejandro put his arm on Miguel's shoulder.

"Miguel. I'm sure they don't hate you." he said.

"I just want them to have a normal life." Miguel added. "I never meant to be on the run with them this long. I can't keep going on like this, Alejandro. My babies...they'll leave me...They'll leave me."

By now, Miguel was sobbing softly. It may have been the whiskey, but the story had touched Alejandro in a way he didn't think it could. It left him with a new found sympathy for this man. He finally understood why he had been so obsessed with finding La Liga.

"Hey." Alejandro said. "What do you say we go back to Dominguez's hacienda?"

Miguel stopped bawling for a moment, and gave Alejandro a look.

"What?"

"Come on. They're planning something big. And we're never going to find out by just sitting around."

"I don't know, de la Vega. It sounds too risky."

"Exactly. We'll only spy on them for just a moment. At least long enough to find out what they are planning to do in California. What do you say?" Alejandro asked.

Miguel guessed that it couldn't hurt to at least listen in on a meeting. Maybe they would find the key to finally defeating La Liga.

"Let's do it for your wife, Miguel." Alejandro added.

It was those words, that made Miguel make up his mind.

"You're right. For Lenore." he said.

* * *

At Padre Felipe's church, Ana walked inside, and looked all around the place. While she had never really told anyone, Ana hadn't always been a huge believer in God. But, today, it seemed that her conflicted emotions needed a bit of the old "divine intervention".

She walked over to the confession booth, and spoke into it.

"Padre?" she called.

Inside the booth, sat Padre Felipe.

"Yes? What is it, my child?" he said.

"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I'm sorry. I don't know how long it's been since my last confession, but I really need someone to talk to." Ana said.

"If you want to speak, I shall listen."

"I am having trouble controlling my emotions." Ana said. "I keep thinking about this boy, but given my past experiences, I don't want to give into my feelings."

"Can you tell me why?" Felipe asked.

"...It's too painful." Ana said. "I don't know what to do, Father."

"Are your feelings hurting anyone?"

"No. I don't think so."

"Have you broken any of the commandments?"

"No."

"Then how could you have possibly sinned, my child?"

Ana had forgotten about that part. Usually when you go to confession, it was to confess a sin. Ana guessed that she just wanted to vent her emotions to someone.

"Listen. What you are feeling, is not wrong, daughter." Felipe said. "If you love this young man, then you should be with him. Denying how you really feel will not help you in the long run."

Ana understood that. He was right. If she liked Joaquin, why should she feel ashamed just because he last relationship turned out bad?

"...Thank you, Padre." she said.

"You are welcome, my child."

* * *

Later, when Ana had returned home, she knocked on Joaquin's bedroom door. It was late, around 1 am, and Joaquin yawned as he opened the door.

"Ana. Is everything okay?" he asked.

"I just wanted...to give you this." Ana said, before throwing her arms around Joaquin and kissing him, softly. He reciprocated.

As they continued kissing, Ana walked inside of his room, and he shut the door.


	14. Chapter 14

At the Dominguez hacienda, Miguel, and Alejandro (who was donning his Zorro outfit) climbed up the house, and onto the roof, where they looked through the same window as the other night. Again, the members of La Liga had gathered in a meeting. The members sat in a circle, while Augusto stood in front of them. Sitting on a table, across from Augusto, was a box. Alejandro and Miguel listened carefully as Augusto began talking.

"Brothers of La Liga." he said. "Our time has arrived. By this time tomorrow, this city will be left a hell, and we shall thrive on the citizen's utter panic."

The other members said nothing, but they sat there, in their chairs, listening.

"Allow me to show you, our new weapon." Augusto said.

He turned around, and took something out of the box. It looked like a long red candle, with a long wick on it.

"Behold." he said.

"What is that?" Miguel whispered to Alejandro.

"I don't know."

The La Liga members, stared at the stick, waiting for an explanation as to what it was.

"This and dozens more are part of the new shipments we received this week. Purchased by Mr. Luis Villanueva." Augusto continued. "Nitroglycerin in it's purest form is highly susceptible to explode with the slightest motion. But, by simply by mixing it with diatomaceous earth, and sodium carbonate, you get dynamite."

"Dynamite?" Alejandro questioned, softly. He'd never heard of that. It must've been some kind of new invention.

"Yes, my friends. Not only is dynamite more transportable than nitroglycerin, we also have an easier way to control it. Just set fire to the fuse, and in a short while, 'boom'." Augusto said.

"But that's not all."

He reached back into the box, and pulled out more dynamite. Although, now it looked like several sticks wrapped together, with some sort of clock attached to it.

"The time bomb" Augusto explained. "This device, gives us the perfect opportunity to launch our attack without anyone knowing. To deactivate it, you simply flip the switch on the back of the clock. The new bank opens tomorrow, which coincides with the mayor's party. We will plant these bombs and detonate them, to begin the city's rioting."

"Brother, you are a genius." the cloaked Fabio said.

The other members clapped.

"A wonderful idea, darling." Esmeralda said.

Alejandro stared at Bronto from the window. He didn't react in anyway. He just stood there, as if he were itching for a battle. Alejandro knew that it'd be pretty tough to take on this guy.

"Do you realize how many people they are going to kill?" Alejandro whispered to Miguel.

"We have to stop them. What's the plan?" Miguel asked. Subconsciously, he leaned his hand onto the window.

"Well, first, I think we should follow them, and then we ca-"

Before Alejandro could finish talking, the glass of the window shattered due to Miguel's weight. In that same instant, both of them fell through, into the room, and onto the floor.

As they tried to shrug off the pain from hitting the ground, Alejandro and Miguel looked up at the members of La Liga that stared down at them.

There was a long moment of silence. Augusto turned his head from them, to his men.

"...Take them." he said.

And, just like that, 5 of the men lunged at Zorro and Miguel. A huge brawl started, one member of La Liga (Angel) tried to attack with his sword, which Alejandro blocked with his own blade. Miguel did hand to hand combat with several of the men as well. Unfortunately, neither of them were doing too well. They took more blows than they dished out. Since the capacity of the room was so small, the melee somehow moved out the door, down the hall, and towards the stairs.

As Alejandro had a hard time sword fighting 2 men at once (Jaime and Angel) , Miguel was getting pummeled almost entirely by the other 3 (William, Fabio, Jorge). It had been foolish of them to come here. They were both completely out matched. After a few more punches were landed, Miguel found himself tumbling down the stairs, with the 3 men following him. Alejandro remained on the stairs, dueling the twins. Jaime and Angel both fought as if they were one mind. It was like they were living proof of the psychic link between twins.

Once the twins saw an opening, they both swiftly slashed at Alejandro's right arm, causing him to drop his sword. When they pointed their blades at him, Zorro figured that this may very well be his last moments, when he saw the huge man from before, Bronto, walk up from behind the Jaime and Angel. He wore his cloak, but not his hood to mask his face. He had a look so intimidating that no one would ever dare to mess with him, making his identity irrelevant.

"My turn!" he said in a booming voice.

The twins turned their attention to him.

"Let me have a try." the giant said.

"Of course, brother." Jaime said.

"We'd be happy to let you have a go at him." Angel said in a voice eerily similar to Jaime's.

The two men then stood a side, clearing a path between Zorro and Bronto. At the bottom of the stairs, William, Fabio, and Jorge restrained Miguel by his arms, and they too watched Alejandro and the big guy stare each other down.

Alejandro knew it was foolish, but he walked slowly up the steps to face his gigantic adversary. After waiting another moment, Zorro punched Bronto, twice in the stomach. It did nothing. He punched at his face a few times. It did nothing. The next few blows Alejandro tried to deliver, were blocked by the giant. When Zorro went in for a final punch to the face, Bronto gripped his fist in his hand, and twisted Alejandro's arm around, spraining it.

Alejandro howled in pain.

He made a punch at Bronto with his other arm, and it did nothing. Bronto then grabbed his throat, and lifted him to the air. After a moment, he threw Alejandro to the floor, completely passing the rest of the stairs.

Miguel felt really guilty about all this. He knew that this night he was going to die. None of this should have ever happened. It was all his fault.

Zorro quickly rose to his feet, as Bronto slowly walked down the steps to him. This time, Alejandro put a little more weight behind his punches. The attacks at least made Bronto flinch this time, but they still didn't seem to harm him. Bronto then punched Alejandro in the face, hard. He then kicked him in the chest, which made him fall to the ground again, knocking his sombrero off in the process.

For the first time in many, many years, Alejandro felt like this was one fight that he couldn't win. There was no stopping La Liga. What had he and Miguel gotten themselves into?

Bronto then walked towards Alejandro, put his foot on his chest, and began pressing. Alejandro groaned loudly. The pain was unbelievable. However, he felt the great titan's foot loosen after he heard someone say, "Enough."

In an instant, Zorro was pulled to his knees, and he looked up to the stairs, where he saw 4 cloaked, masked people walking down. Bronto restrained him by his arms.

"Such an honor, to have you both stop by." said a man's voice that Alejandro recognized.

When they got down to floor, they removed their hoods, revealing them to be Augusto, Esmeralda, Carlos, and Fabio. Alejandro and Augusto focused their eyes only on each other for a long moment. Alejandro looked at Augusto with sheer contempt.

"Remove his mask." Augusto said to Bronto.

The giant acquiesced and pulled off Zorro's mask, revealing to La Liga his true identity. Alejandro's face was revealed to have a black eye now, and a few other cuts as the result of Bronto's pummeling.

Surprisingly, no one there looked nearly as shocked as was expected.

"...de la Vega." Augusto said, unconcernedly. "I might have known. All the talk about heroism being pathetic sounded a little too Shakespearean for me."

"Well, I guess I'll have to brush up on my acting skills." Alejandro sassed out.

Dominguez scoffed before turning his attention to Miguel, who it seemed was being ignored the whole time.

"And, what have we here?" Augusto asked. "A former ally back from the dead, I see."

Miguel gave Augusto a look of pure hatred. He loathed every cell that the man was comprised of.

"Now, what I can't figure out is that if you survived that fire, why would you ever come back?" Augusto asked.

"Well, you can't just destroy my life, and expect absolutely no kind of reprisal." Miguel said.

"Quite right. Except your little 'reprisal' didn't turn out exactly as you planned, did it?" Augusto taunted.

Miguel then spat, directly in the man's face. He didn't take that gesture lightly. With an angered expression on his face, Augusto reached into his pocket, got out a handkerchief, and wiped the saliva off of his face.

Next, without any warning, he sent a punch straight into Miguel's stomach. This completely knocked the wind out of him. He gasped for at least 10 seconds, before Augusto got down to his knees, and places his hands on Miguel and Alejandro's shoulders.

"Let's go for a ride. Shall well, gentlemen?" Augusto asked.

* * *

A few minutes later, Miguel, and Alejandro were riding in the back of a carriage, with the windows blinded, so that they could not tell where they were headed. Their limbs were bound with rope with their hands behind their backs. They had been sitting there for 30 minutes in silence.

"So, it looks like this is it, eh." Alejandro said. He'd pretty much accepted that he would die here.

Miguel sighed. "This is all my fault. None of this should have happened."

"What are you talking about?"

"For 12 years, I've tried to find these people, I've wasted both of my children's lives, turned them into criminals trying to chase a fruitless ambition, when the truth is...my wife is dead because of me."

"No. Don't say that."

"Why shouldn't I? You were right, Alejandro. I brought this on myself by joining them in the first place."

"We will figure out a way out of this, my friend. Trust me."

Miguel shook his head.

"It's alright. Without me, Ana and Santiago might have a chance in the real world. I'm just sorry I got you caught in the middle of all this."

Miguel looked completely and utterly sorry and defeated. He had no hope left for anything. The only consolation he felt now was that perhaps he would now go to be with Lenore, once Dominguez had finished him off.

When the carriage had finally stopped, Alejandro and Miguel waited a few moments before the doors were opened, and they were pulled out by the hooded members of La Liga.

It looked as though they were in the middle of nowhere. It was still night. In the distance in front of them all stood a small, isolated, abandoned building. It appeared to be near the edge of a cliff. Alejandro could hear the sound of the ocean, meaning that at the bottom of the cliff, was the sea.

"What are we doing here?" Miguel asked Alejandro, who shook his head.

They had no idea why this one building had been built there, or why. When they looked behind themselves, they saw nothing but desert.

The other members of La Liga exited another carriage, including the Dominguez family. The captives stared at Augusto as he approached them. He gave them one final stare before snapping his finger.

Responding to the order, Bronto walked over to Alejandro and punched him in the stomach, hard.

Later, Zorro was on the ground, near the edge of the cliff. By now, a heavy stone was tied to his legs. Earlier, Miguel had tried to stop them, but he couldn't escape his bonds.

"Bring his family to me." Augusto said to Fabio.

"What? No!" Alejandro yelled.

"Goodbye, de la Vega." Augusto said, apathetically.

Bronto then walked over to Alejandro, picked him up over his head, then chucked him off of the cliff.

"No! You bastard!" Miguel yelled.

After the long, far drop off of the cliff, Alejandro landed into the sea with a huge splash. The stone tied to his legs made him sink to the bottom.

Back on the cliff, Augusto smiled at Zorro's supposed defeat. He turned back to his crew, and spoke.

"Gentlemen. Our plans have official been set into motion." he said.

Under the water, Alejandro was running out of air, and due to his hands being around his back, coupled with the stone around his legs, his chances of surviving were slim. When his eyes finally adjusted to the seawater, he saw something that looked like coral. He pushed himself over to it, and began to rub his wrists up against it, in an attempt to cut the binds. After a few seconds of trying, Alejandro's hands were free. He felt himself slowly begin to lose consciousness, so he quickly undid the knot on his legs.

Once the ropes were off, he swam frantically to the surface. He found it difficult, seeing as his arm was still sprained. As his head rose from the water, he gasped several times for oxygen. He tried to listen for La Liga to see if they were still there. He heard nothing. They must've gone. Knowing time was of the essence, Alejandro knew he had to get home fast, before Fabio got to Elena, and the others. The only problem; he had no idea where he was.

* * *

Inside of the isolated building on top of the cliff, it looked like some sort of bar. It had tables, and a counter, but it was not just a bar. In the back room, there was a jail cell. Miguel Chavez stood, shirtless, with his arms locked to the wall, like a crucified man, while Augusto, Esmeralda, and Carlos stared at him.

The young Dominguez son stepped forward, and punched Miguel across each side of the face, cutting his lip.

Augusto lifted up Alejandro's whip that he had in his hand, and slashed Miguel across the chest with it.

"Agh!" Miguel hollered.

"What did you think was going to happen, Miguel?" Augusto asked. "You'd simply take your revenge? Did you really think it would be that easy?"

He whipped Miguel again. Carlos smirked as he watched.

"Agghhh!"

"When I'm finished with you, you'll wish you had died in that fire 12 years ago."

Miguel gave his enemies a look, before putting his head down.

Augusto turned to his wife.

"Have fun." he said, before exiting the room.

Esmeralda walked toward Miguel, with a matchbox in her hand.

"Don't worry, sweetheart." she smiled, as she lit a match. "I'll be gentle."

"Aggghhhhh!"


	15. Chapter 15

The next morning, Joaquin woke up next to Ana in his bed. He was a little startled to see her there, sleeping. He'd almost forgotten about what had happened last night. Then it all came back to him. As he sat himself up on his bed, and looked over to her. She looked so peaceful, and calm. As if all of the troubles of her life had faded completely. Not wanting to disturb her from her slumber, Joaquin decided to get up and find Santiago.

After he couldn't find him in the house, Joaquin asked Elena where Santiago might be. She said he had told her that he was going down to the bar. Joaquin slipped on his clothes, and left the hacienda.

When he arrived at the bar, there were fewer patrons in there than last night. It wasn't long before Joaquin found Santiago though. He sat there, with at 3 other men, playing a game of Poker.

"It's your bet, amigo." one of the players said to Santiago.

Santiago kept his eyes focused on his cards, while Joaquin watched him play from the entrance.

"I'm in for 30." he said, slapping his money down on the table.

"I'm in." the other players said at various times, also placing their money down.

When the others placed their cards down, one of the men had nothing good, the other had Three of a Kind, while the 3rd had a Two Pair.

"...Full House. I win again." Santiago declared, nonchalantly, while placing his cards down.

He gathered the change, and bills of money on the table, while the other men groaned.

"6 times in a row. There's no way you're this lucky." one of them said.

"Trust me, fellas. It has nothing to do with luck. All it takes is dedication and practice." Santiago said, as the men stood from the table and left. They were clearly out of money.

Once they had been a safe enough distance from him, Santiago reached into his sleeves and pulled out various cards before sorting them back into the deck. Joaquin witnessed this, and chuckled to himself. He walked closer to the table, and over to his friend.

"Hey, Joaquin." Santiago said. "What's going on?"

"Were you...cheating at that poker game?" Joaquin asked. Santiago shrugged.

"It's a good investment."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So, what are you doing here? Come to pump me for some more advice about Ana?" Santiago counted his money.

Joaquin had thought about it, but he realized that talking to Santiago about Ana was kind of redundant after what happened last night. Instead, Joaquin had come to Santiago with a different question.

"Uh, no. I wanted to ask you, where are our dads?"

"I don't know. Barkeep said they left last night not long after we did."

This confused Joaquin a bit. He didn't see his dad this morning, and Elena had asked him if he'd seen him. Maybe something happened last night...no. Joaquin was sure Alejandro was fine.

* * *

But, he was wrong. Somewhere in the middle of the desert, Alejandro walked through the morning heat. Thanks to the blinded windows in the carriages, he had no idea where La Liga had brought him last night, meaning that he was having a really hard time figuring out where he was. After walking aimlessly for over 4 hours, Alejandro was still determined to get home to warn his family before La Liga got there first.

* * *

In Joaquin's bedroom, Ana softly opened her eyes, and recognized where she was after a second. Memories of last night then filled her brain. But, for some reason, she was alone in the room.

"Joaquin?" she called. No answer. She figured he must've gotten up, and went downstairs for breakfast already.

Once she had gotten dressed and went downstairs, Ana felt alone in the house. There was seriously no one around. It was weird. The emptiness in the huge hacienda suddenly made the place feel a little spooky. She stood near the dinner table, and looked around.

"Hello?" Ana called.

Apparently Ana wasn't alone, because a few seconds later, Elena walked into the room.

"Good morning, Ana." she smiled.

"Good morning." Ana smiled in relief. "For a minute there, I thought I was alone in the house."

"I know. Joaquin and Santiago left early. I do not know why. Have you seen Alejandro?"

"No."

"Oh. That is strange. He and Miguel did not come home last night."

"They didn't?"

This was kind of weird. What could've kept them out all night? Sure, Alejandro was a professional drinker, but, he'd never been gone so long without at least telling someone first. Perhaps he and Miguel had passed out somewhere. Elena and Ana were both considering these ideas in their heads, when they heard a sudden knock on the door. When they went to answer it, Elena opened the door expecting her husband.

"Alejandro, do you have any idea how long you were-" But it wasn't Alejandro standing there.

"Fabio." Elena said in surprise.

"Good morning, Elena. Ana." Fabio said.

Now that they knew who Fabio was, Ana and Elena knew they had to be careful around him.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news." Fabio continued. "It's regarding your husband."

"What happened?" Ana asked.

"We found him, and another man unconscious on the ground near a bar today. It seems they had a little too much to drink last night."

Okay. This sounded like Alejandro and Miguel, but why did Fabio keep staring at Elena and Ana with a weird look in his eye?

"Where are they now?" Elena asked.

"Come with me, I'll take you to them." Fabio reached out his hand for Elena. She reluctantly took it, and Ana followed.

They stepped outside, to the front of the hacienda, where they found several cloaked men surrounding the area. Elena began to feel a little tense, as did Ana. Even though they'd never seen them in the hoods before, they knew they were looking at La Liga.

"What's going on?" Elena breathed, feigning confusion.

"It's quite simple, really." Fabio said. "My brother needs you two for a job. Please come quietly, would you? Wouldn't want to harm you if unnecessary."

Without warning, Elena swiftly punched Fabio in the face, before turning to Ana.

"Run!" Elena shouted.

The other men, then ran over, and attacked them. The women tried defending themselves, but did just as poorly as Alejandro and Miguel did the night before. Elena punched a couple of guys that were knocked away, while Ana did a few moves against the 3 men that were attacking her. After a moment of brawling, Fabio sneaked up behind Elena, and punched her hard in the face, rendering her unconscious.

"Elena!" Ana screamed.

She began to fight on her own, but quickly became overwhelmed. A chloroform cloth quickly found it's way around Ana's nose and mouth. She tried fighting it for a second, but soon succumbed to the drug's effects, and passed out.

* * *

About half an hour later, Santiago and Joaquin arrived back at the de la Vega hacienda. They went inside, and saw no one. It was like a ghost mansion.

"Hello?" Joaquin called. "Mom? Dad?"

"Dad? Ana?" Santiago called.

No one answered.

"What the hell's going on?" Santiago asked.

"I don't know."

They must've searched every room in that house from top to bottom, and still could not find their family.

"Where could they be?" Santiago asked as they searched the downstairs.

"Don't panic. They've got to be somewhere." Joaquin assured him.

The front door, then swung open, and the man who stepped inside, fell to his knees. It was Alejandro. He appeared sunburned, dirty, and sweating. He even still carried the injuries he had received the previous night. The boys ran over to him.

"Dad!" Joaquin said, worried.

"What happened?" Santiago asked.

"La Liga." Alejandro was exhausted. "Miguel and I went back to Dominguez's hacienda. But we got caught."

He coughed as he tried to speak. The boys held him steady, so he wouldn't fall on his face.

"Where's my dad?" Santiago asked.

"They've got him. Locked up. Where's Elena?"

"I don't know. She's not here. Ana's gone too." Joaquin said.

"Where were you all this time?"

"We were at the bar all morning. We thought you might be there."

"Oh, no!" Alejandro said.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Augusto sent his men to get you all. They must've gotten Elena and Ana."

"What?!" Santiago asked.

This made him and Joaquin very angry. La Liga had made this even more personal than it had already been before. Alejandro rose to his feet.

"I have to hurry. If I don't get there, in time, they'll kill them." he said. "You boys wait here."

"No way!" Joaquin protested. "I'm coming with you."

"So am I. There's no way you're doing this on your own. Not now." Santiago concurred.

Alejandro let out a sigh.

"Joaquin. I've gone through this time, and time again-"

"I know we've been over this. But remember when you said that _some_day you would need my help? Well today _is_ that day." Joaquin asserted.

"We're the last ones standing, Alejandro." Santiago said. "You need us."

Knowing how right they were, Alejandro's blank expression slowly formed its way into a smile.

In an unprecedented move, all 3 men slipped on the black suit, cape, gloves, sombrero and boots. Grabbed their swords, and whips, before heading out into the desert, Alejandro riding Toronado, with Santiago and Joaquin on their respective horses, all 3 of them wearing the mask of Zorro.


	16. Chapter 16

Back at the isolated building by the cliff, inside, near the front of the bar, Elena and Ana sat, with their hands chained around a support beam, while Fabio, Carlos, and Augusto watched them. Fabio sat at one of the tables, sipping a drink. When he looked at Elena, she glared at him. He gave her a lecherous smile, which disgusted her. Ana also stared at Carlos who gave her a similar grin.

Augusto, who was not smiling at all, paced around his captives, and had been doing so for a good 5 minutes. Elena and Ana turned their attention to him when he decided to speak.

"Did you know that the first generation of La Liga is said to have been started by a rogue ninja?" he asked.

Neither of the ladies responded. Augusto stopped pacing, but he didn't care if he got an answer or not. It was a pretty trivial question after all.

"My father told me that story. And his father before him." he continued. "Both would be proud to see what I am about to accomplish today."

"Why are you doing this?" Elena asked. "Why destroy the bank you just built? I thought La Liga's only interest was money."

Augusto smiled. As did Fabio.

"I am interested in two things, my dear." the former said. "Money. And _chaos_."

"La Liga originally functioned for the purpose of obtaining wealth, but our directives have changed." Augusto continued. "The way my father operated the group taught me ever since I was a small lad that force would never get the job done. You need a more dramatic approach to spread the amount of mayhem necessary to meet your goals. For many years, my family has traveled the world, causing panic in the streets, stirring up as much trouble as possible in the hopes that one day the mere utterance of our group's name, would become a fear inducing archetype."

Ana and Elena's assumptions about this man were now even worse than they had imagined. They had assumed that he was just a rich man that thrived on how much money he could make on a heist. But now it was evident that this was much more personal to him. He wanted people to feel fear. He got off on watching others suffer. The money was just the icing on the cake. The two of them listened intently as Dominguez continued.

"When we arrived in California, after killing a Utah local named Villanueva, we agreed that Zorro would indeed be a problem. So, to add a flourish to this particular pilferage, we decided to frame him, demolish the mayor's estate, and build a bank, just do destroy it the very same day it opens. Not only does it get the point across that La Liga is about more than just money, it also eliminates my family and I as suspects. Because, as you said, Elena, why _would_ someone destroy their own bank?"

This plan was genius. If anything would send California into an uproar, it would be that plan. And with Zorro marked a fugitive, he'd be powerless to stop it.

"You're a monster." Ana said, bitterly.

All Augusto had to respond to that was a chuckle. With that, he turned to his brother.

"Watch them." he said. "Carlos, come."

Augusto and his son then left the room, leaving Elena and Ana alone with Fabio. He smirked at both of them, while taking another sip of his drink.

"That husband of yours is a rather stupid fellow, Elena." he said. He stood up and walked towards the ladies, stopping several feet away from them. "I must admit, I underestimated his foolishness, until he dropped in on us last night at our meeting."

So that's where Alejandro must've gone. Elena looked with a grimace, at Fabio.

"Where is he?" she said. Then her voice got slightly louder. "What have you done with him?!"

"Hehehe...he's dead." Fabio chuckled.

Both Elena and Ana gasped. Dead? No. That's not possible. Not Alejandro. He wouldn't let that happen. He couldn't.

"What?" Elena said.

"That's right. Took a permanent swim in the ocean." Fabio then got close to Elena's face. "I guess now, I've got you all to myself."

He ran a finger down her cheek, and she shuddered in disgust. This caused Fabio to snicker a bit.

"Where's my dad?" Ana asked. Fabio looked at her, and stood back up.

"Oh, he's still around. Not for long, though. My guess is, by now, he's not feeling too good."

"If you hurt him, I swear to God, I'll-"

"You'll do what? Hmm?"

Fabio laughed in his throat. What did this little girl think she was going to do? She had already demonstrated earlier that she was a poor fighter. Any threat she made at this point would fall on deaf ears.

"Excuse me ladies, I've got much better plans to attend to." Fabio said, before walking out of the abandoned building the same way his brother and nephew had.

In the back room of the building, the jail cell, Esmeralda was still down there, and had been torturing Miguel for hours on end. He'd been whipped, water boarded, suffered blunt trauma, and burned. It was hard to believe that the man was still alive. He had several burns on his face, chest, and arms, a black eye, busted lip, and several slashes on his stomach from being whipped. He coughed as he tried to maintain consciousness as Esmeralda walked over to the table, and grabbed a knife.

"I'm impressed, Miguel." Esmeralda said. "You're taking this like a champion. How do you feel?"

Miguel panted as he struggled to get the words out.

"...N-never...better..."

"Good."

She stepped closer to him with the knife.

"Look, do what you want to me, bitch. But, leave my family of out it."

Bitch? That was pretty big talk, considering she was the one with the knife.

"Excuse me?"

"They've had enough of living like this. La Liga's quarrel is with me alone. It has nothing to do with my children."

"You should have thought about that before dragging them into this. You have nobody to blame but yourself."

Esmeralda had no sympathy in her voice. She was just as sick as her husband. But she was right. Just like everyone had been telling Miguel from the beginning; he had nobody to blame but himself. He pretty much figured he deserved to die the gruesome way he was probably going to, now. He just wished that he would at least be able to tell his children he loved them. He actually couldn't remember the last time he had told them that. Anamaria and Santiago were his children, and he couldn't even remember the last time he'd told them he loved them. For birthdays, he would teach them a new fighting technique. Whenever one of them got hurt, physically or emotionally, he would tell them in a less contemptible way, to suck it up. What a joke of a father he had been.

Esmeralda stepped forward with the knife.

"Now...tell me when it hurts."

She began slowly scraping the blade across his left pectoral.

"Aagghhh!"

The pain may have been excruciating, but it didn't hurt nearly as bad as Miguel's broken heart. Silent tears streamed down his face, as he lamented the loss of everything, and his failure as a person.

* * *

Across the desert, 3 horses made dust in the sand as midday set in. Racing at their steeds' top speed, Alejandro, Joaquin and Santiago rode across the desert, all dressed as Zorro. It was like a less cheesy version of the 3 Amigos.

While he was still injured, a stern look of determination was in Alejandro's eyes. All bets were off now. It was time for the big finish. As he rode on Toronado, he knew that there was a chance that he wouldn't make it out of this day alive, but as Don Diego had told him long ago, Zorro was his "curse and destiny."

Joaquin relished in the fact that he finally got to join his father on a mission, but at the same time, he understood the urgency of the situation, and felt a flicker of fear. Not for himself, but for Ana. What if they didn't make it in time? What if they had already killed her? And Elena? The fear soon turned to anger, which kept Joaquin going.

Santiago was full of vexation. He was through. He _hated_ La Liga, and they had gone too far this time. They took his father, sister, _and_ Elena. The one who felt so much like a mother to him. There was no way he could let this pass. He didn't care if he died today, he just wanted to make La Liga pay for what they have done to his family. If Miguel thought he wanted La Liga, he didn't nearly want them as bad as Santiago did today.

The 3 men galloped fast on their horses for a few more minutes. It had taken a while, and they may have gotten turned around somewhere, but Alejandro was able to figure out how to get back to where he had been tossed into the ocean. On the horizon, they could all see the isolated building. Strangely enough, there were no horses that they could see tied to anything.

"Is that it?" Joaquin asked.

"Yes." Alejandro answered.

As they got closer, and closer it was clear that there were indeed no horses around. Alejandro, Joaquin, and Santiago jumped off of their steeds and drew their swords as they approached the abandoned building.

"Okay. No matter what, stay together." Alejandro whispered to the boys, who nodded.

"One...two...three."

At three, Alejandro kicked the door open and they walked in.

"Alejandro!" Elena said, relieved when she saw him. "My God. They told me you were dead."

He went to her, and kissed her softly on the lips.

"Joaquin! Santiago!" Ana said. "What are you wearing?"

Ignoring the Zorro outfit question, Joaquin went to her, and got on his knees.

"Are you alright?" he asked. She nodded.

Santiago, and Ana just gave each other a brotherly-sisterly stare. They were happy to see each other alive, and well. Something then occurred to everyone. La Liga was nowhere to be found in the building. It was just them.

"Where are they?" Alejandro asked.

"I do not know." Elena answered. "They all left before you came."

Alejandro fumbled with the chains that trapped Ana and Elena to the beam.

"We need to get out of here, as soon as possible." he said. "Joaquin, see if you can find a key."

But, before Joaquin could start, Ana decided to speak.

"It's okay. Joaquin. Look in my front pocket." she said.

"What?"

"Just do it."

Joaquin did as he was told, and reached into Ana's right frontal pocket. What he pulled out, was a chain of keys. Joaquin smiled, and chuckled. Ana smiled back.

"Took 'em from Dominguez about 5 minutes after we got here." she said.

Santiago grinned.

"Oh." Joaquin kissed Ana, hugged her. "You are such a genius!"

Looks like something positive finally came out of Ana's pickpocketing habit.

Joaquin used the key on the lock connecting the chain. It fit perfectly, and he unlocked the girl and his mother. The ladies stood up, and everyone hugged each other. Ana and Santiago had a quick hug, before she went into Joaquin's arms, and basked in the moment. When it was Santiago's turn to hug Elena, he took her, tightly. He obviously felt protective of her.

Alejandro handed Elena and Ana each a sword, then suddenly they all heard a groan of some sort, coming from, it seemed like the back.

"Hello?" Santiago called. "Who's there?"

The groan grew louder, and it almost sounded like someone said, "In here!"

"Dad?" Santiago called.

"I'm in here!" They heard the murmur said.

"Hand me the keys, Joaquin." Santiago said.

Ana and her brother went to the door, and opened it. In the prison, they saw their father, still chained up like a crucified man.

"Dad!" Ana said, as she and Santiago walked down the steps to him.

"K-kids." Miguel smiled.

"Oh my God, what did they do to you?" Santiago said.

Miguel shot a confused looked him. It was the Zorro costume.

"What did _you_ do to you?" he asked.

"Unchain him." Ana said.

Santiago went through a couple of keys before he found the right one that unlocked the chains. When he finally did, Miguel almost fell the the ground as soon as he was freed. Luckily, his children caught him. When he stood up straight again, he hugged them both tightly. It was a special kind of embrace. Like the family's first real heart-to-heart. It looked like Miguel was going to get a second chance after all. When the hug ended, he kept his hands on his children's shoulders.

"Listen. Santiago, Anamaria." Miguel said. "I know that I've been pushing you to all your lives to be fighters-"

"Dad look, you don't have to-" Santiago tried to interject, but was cut off.

"No, no. It was _never_ because I didn't love you two. And I promise, when this is over, I'll make it up to both of you. As a family."

Ana and Santiago almost felt like crying. But, now, there was no time for that. They had to get moving. Miguel quickly put his shirt back on, and Santiago handed him a sword.

When they emerged to the bar, Elena, Alejandro, and Joaquin had been waiting for them. While they all noticed it, they decided not to mention how messed up Miguel had looked. He was even bleeding a bit through his shirt, for God's sake. He looked at Alejandro, and sighed with relief.

"Alejandro. You're alive."

"It'll take more than the ocean to get rid of me, Miguel."

"Right. Let's get to work. Where are they?"

"They left before we got here." Joaquin said.

"What?" Miguel asked.

"They must be headed for the town. They're gonna plant their bombs." Alejandro said. "We must get there quickly if we're going to stop them."

They all moved towards the entrance of the bar, and opened the door. When they got outside, their eyes all widened, as they looked straight ahead, and saw all of La Liga mounted on their horses.

"I'm afraid stopping us is not an option." Augusto Dominguez declared.

The Chavez and de la Vega family were being stared down by La Liga from at least 20 feet away. Augusto, Fabio, Esmeralda, Carlos, Jaime and Angel, William, Enrique, Jorge, and Bronto, all dismounted and stepped a few feet closer.

"de la Vega." Augusto said to Alejandro. "It seems I underestimated your survival skills."

He took a gander at the way Joaquin and Santiago were dressed, and scoffed.

"How amusing. Do you really think wearing those masks is of any real significance?" he asked.

"It ends here, Dominguez." Alejandro said.

"Perhaps for you and your friends, Zorro. But, our plan has already been set into motion. Once it hits, the whole world will cower in fear of La Liga."

"You never even get a little tired of hearing yourself speak, do you?" Santiago asked.

Augusto ignored that comment, and turned to Miguel, who was clearly full of piss and vinegar.

"And, what about you?" Augusto asked. He stepped a little closer. "Still alive, after all that torment. Just think, if only you had done what I'd asked of you 12 years ago, you could've prevented all this."

"Why don't we finish what we started that night, Dominguez?" Miguel asked.

"Gladly. Let's just hope this time you don't lose another loved one in the process."

That comment sent Miguel off the edge. He punched Augusto in the face, and that's when the fight started.

Everyone drew their swords, and engaged in an all out war. Everyone fought each other at the same time. Swords swinging everywhere, clanking and slashing. Miguel and Augusto primarily fought each other. At some point, Santiago, and Joaquin both had a hard time keeping on their toes fighting Bronto simultaneously.

This seemed slightly easier than it had been before. Though, La Liga was still doing better than both the Chavez's and the de la Vega's, the latter was able to fight better than a one on one match.

Opponents alternated between each other. Soon, Jaime and Angel fought Santiago and Ana at the same time, while Joaquin took on Carlos. The twins once again fought as if they were one mind, and Carlos gave Joaquin a bit of trouble.

Miguel battled Augusto through his pain, and even seemed to have more energy than was expected.

Ana dueled a bit with Esmeralda. Even though it was at least a 20 year age difference, the 15 year old held her own against her.

Alejandro fought William for a bit before knocking him back. His expression changed to slight fear when he saw the giant titan, Bronto slowly stepping towards him, with no sword in his hand. The guy was prepared to engage Zorro without the use of a weapon.

Once he was within a good distance, Alejandro swung his blade at Bronto, but to much of his shock, the giant had caught the sword...by it's blade. Some blood trickled from Bronto's fist, but nevertheless, he had a firm grip the sword. In that same instant, he swiped the sword out of Alejandro's grip, and subsequently tossed it across the sand. Alejandro remembered what happened the last time he'd gotten into a fist fight with Bronto, and was more than aware that he now had to use caution.

The giant grinned at Alejandro, who began trying to punch at him. Once again, the attacks did very little to Bronto. Alejandro hit harder, and harder, landing kicks and punches, all to no avail, until Bronto decided to fight back, by headbutting Alejandro. He staggered back a bit, and was punched in the face. Bronto kept pounding on Zorro as they headed towards the edge of the cliff. Alejandro punched at Bronto more times, which may have hurt him a bit, but no serious damage was caused.

Alejandro then decided to try something new. He quickly went behind Bronto, and jumped on his back. He tried to put him in a choke hold, but the mighty tyrant didn't seem to be effected by that either. The scar on Bronto's eye became evident to Alejandro, and he considered it to be a possible weak spot. He swiftly poked the man in the eye, which caused him to howl in pain. He then threw Alejandro off of his back and to the ground in front of him. Bronto was still clutching his eye when Alejandro rose to his feet. He took this opportunity to attack. He started landing blow after blow on the giant, hitting him as hard as he could. Bronto was too incapacitated to stop him, but after taking a few steps back, Alejandro noticed that he was at the very edge of the cliff.

Bronto finally stopped holding his eye, revealing it to be bleeding. He was breathing hard, and looked really mad.

"You die now, Zorro." he said in his less than educated voice.

He let out a war cry, before lunging at Zorro, who had anticipated this attack. Alejandro dove between Bronto's huge legs, and ended up on the ground behind him. When Bronto turned around, Alejandro, with all his might, kicked him in the kneecaps.

"Aaaaaghhhh!" Bronto howled. His knees were likely broken.

Zorro panted from the fight, as Bronto reared backwards, and fell off of the cliff. Only this wasn't the side with the water, it was near the shore wear all of the huge, sharp rocks had been. Bronto landed headfirst into a giant stone, killing him.


	17. Chapter 17

In town, at the mayor's hacienda, nearly the entire town had come to attend a special party. There were more people than there had been for Governor Johnson's speech. People ate, drank, danced, laughed. Unknown to anyone there, outside of the hacienda, in the back was a time bomb that had little less than 30 minutes before it detonated.

A few blocks away, a man had just cut the ribbon to the Dominguez's new bank, which had more people in there, opening accounts, for deals that were better than most other banks in the area. None of them realized either that somewhere in the building, there was a time bomb wearing down on it's clock as well.

* * *

Back at the cliff side, the fighting continued.

Miguel and Augusto's duel continued. It was amazing that Miguel could fight for so long. It was almost like it was his will that kept him going.

"The thing that troubles me, is why you would want to stop me anyhow." Augusto said. "You're a thief, Miguel. Are you not just like me?"

"I _am_ a thief." Miguel agreed. "But I've never killed anyone. The only life I want to take...is YOURS!"

He lunged at Augusto again, and their duel heightened in speed.

As Alejandro reclaimed his sword, he tried to battle 3 men at once (Jaime, Angel, Jorge), while Santiago had William, Joaquin with Enrique, and Ana with Carlos.

Esmeralda moved on to Elena, and they engaged in a short duel. Neither of them slashed one another, and they seemed to be on par with each other. After a quick sword lock, Elena pushed Esmeralda off of her.

When she rose to her feet, Esmeralda prepared to continue fighting Elena, but Fabio stepped forward and held his hand out.

"My turn." he said.

Esmeralda went to find someone else to fight, as Fabio walked towards Elena.

"Well, well. Elena, may I have this dance?"

Elena said nothing, but shrieked as she lunged forward to attack. Fabio blocked all of her moves, and she blocked most of his. The fact that she was able to slightly take him turned him on even more. This sicko was enjoying this fight. Before long, like Santiago's fight with Fabio, Elena began to lose her follow through.

Before long, she ended up on the ground, with Fabio pointing his sword to her.

"God, you are so beautiful." he said. "Exquisite."

Elena wasn't sure what Fabio had planned to do at that point, but she wouldn't find out as Fabio was kicked in the face, and landed several feet away. Standing in his place was Santiago. He gave her a small smile before turning to Fabio, who was bleeding from the mouth, laughing.

"So, Santiago. Come for a little rematch?" he smirked.

"You stay away from her." Santiago said, angrily.

"Ooh. Nice threat young man."

Fabio got to his feet, and wiped some blood from his lip.

"You know, after this is all over, I may have my way with her. And I just might keep you alive long enough to watch. Just like with your real Mama."

That was it. Santiago was beyond angry now. He took his sword, and engaged in a duel with Fabio. This one was a little faster paced than the last, and rather than letting his anger control him this time, Santiago was now trying to let it guide him.

When it came to another sword lock, Fabio pressed hard against Santiago's sword.

"A lot of your moves seem familiar, kid." Fabio said. "At this rate, you might not get to watch after all."

Santiago pushed Fabio back with a new found strength. When they got in their fighting stances, Santiago took a huge breath, and reared his blade behind his back, before striking it against Fabio's. Their blades now moved faster than ever, primarily Santiago's. All of the rage he had felt ever since he saw his mother dead 12 years ago was let out in this instant. Fabio, however felt himself begin to lose control of the duel. Before long, Santiago was moving faster than Fabio could keep up.

In a swift, and dangerous attack, Santiago slashed his blade across Fabio's stomach, making a huge laceration. Fabio gasped in astonishment as he dropped his sword, and felt his wound. It bled profusely, he fell to the ground, and slowly began to exsanguinate.

Joaquin battled with Jaime and Angel. Their minds were one. They fought in exactly the same pattern, which made it difficult for Joaquin to keep up with them. They both had a hateful grin on their faces. It was almost like they were robotic or something. Their faces show no emotion other than ill-intent.

Ana sword fought with Carlos, who seemed to be having as much fun with her as Fabio had had with Elena. Her sword skills were just about as good as his was.

Esmeralda and Elena continued their duel, Miguel and Augusto kept fighting. Alejandro took on William, and Enrique at once, while Santiago moved on to fighting Jorge.

This was absolute war. More than half of them had either their own blood, or someone else's blood on their clothes by now.

As Joaquin's duel with the twins carried on, he found himself caught between the two of them. He had to switch from in front of himself, to behind himself to keep fighting. It was becoming exhausting, and the twins could tell Joaquin was getting tired. When a moment came, they took the opportunity to try to stab at him. Joaquin, however quickly ducked to the ground, as the twins accidentally, and simultaneously stabbed themselves in the chest. They fell to the ground, dead.

Miguel and Augusto's fight seemed to have been going on forever. When they stopped for a brief pause, Miguel spoke.

"I cannot tell you how long I waited for this day, Dominguez." he said. "Today, La Liga will die. I will make sure of it. And I will _not_ let you harm those people."

"But, haven't I told you?" Augusto said. "You can't stop it now. The time bombs have been activated."

Miguel was shocked. He had forgotten all about that. He thought he and his family had caught La Liga leaving to _plant_ the bombs, not coming back from already doing it.

"We triggered them over 40 minutes ago." Augusto added.

The timer had been set for an hour. At least 45 minutes had passed. There was only little more than 10 minutes left for someone to diffuse it.

Luckily, what Augusto had said was within Santiago's earshot, and he thought of an idea. He pushed Jorge down and started to run to his horse.

"Joaquin! Come on!" he shouted to his friend as he climbed on to his steed.

Realizing what Santiago was planning to do, Joaquin remembered how he had won that race the night before. If any horse was to get to town in time to diffuse the bombs, it would be Toronado. He mounted the horse, and rode off with Santiago.

"Stop them!" Augusto shouted to Carlos.

Dominguez's son ran over to his horse, mounted, and began to chase after Santiago and Joaquin.

Across the desert, the 3 teenagers raced on their horses. Toronado, of course was in the lead, with Santiago's horse steadily behind him. Carlos was slowly beginning to catch up, however.

On the battlefield, the war raged on.

Miguel and Augusto's fight refused to cease. Both men by now, were exhausted, exchanging blows left and right, as if they were planning to continue the duel until Judgment Day.

But, unfortunately, Miguel's injuries started to get the better of him, and he fell backwards to the ground. He panted heavily, and Augusto pointed his blade at his throat. He smiled at Chavez.

"How did you think it was going to end?" he chuckled.

"Don't move." they heard a voice say.

Augusto turned, and saw Ana there, holding her sword at his back, ready to stab him.

"Step away from him, and fight me." she said.

"...Oh, please. Do you really think you can threaten me?" Augusto asked.

"Ana, get away. Just go." Miguel said.

Ana ignored the request, and just kept her eyes on Augusto.

"You're a lot of things, Ana. But not a murderer. You don't have it in you to kill me." he taunted.

She pressed her sword a bit tighter against his back, but it didn't scare him.

"Go on. Kill me...You can't do it, can you?"

Ana didn't know if she could, as a matter of fact. She'd never taken a life before. Come to think of it, neither had her father or brother. It was easy to tell why Augusto didn't feel threatened.

"Fine." he said. "Perhaps you need a little demonstration."

The bastard then plunged his sword into Miguel's chest. Everyone saw this, and appeared shocked.

"Augghh!" Miguel cried.

"NOOO!" Ana screamed.

Then something snapped inside of her, and she stuck her blade into Augusto's stomach.

"Uhh!" he gasped, shocked.

He gurgled a bit as blood started seeping from his mouth. He fell to the ground with a thud, seemingly dead.

Ana looked over to her father, who was gurgling, as well. Tears began to form in her eyes, as she got to her knees.

"G-g-good job, sweetheart." Miguel choked out.

"Daddy..." was all Ana could say.

She wept softly, cradling her father's head in her hands.

"...Go...fight." Miguel said.

Ana shook her head.

"...Go..."

Through her tears, she nodded, and stood up, rejoining the battle with Alejandro and Elena.

* * *

As they got closer to town, Santiago and Joaquin continued racing Carlos. The hooves of the horses kicked up a lot of dust. Joaquin beckoned Toronado to run faster. Santiago found it difficult to increase his horse's rapidity, and Carlos' horse continued to keep up with them.

* * *

In town, behind the mayor's hacienda, and inside of the bank, each of the clocks kept ticking away.

_7:55...7:54...7:53..._


	18. Chapter 18

The boys continued riding through the desert, they were getting closer and closer to town, at the same time, the clock kept ticking. Joaquin remained in the lead, with Santiago and Carlos behind him.

By now, Carlos' horse had caught up completely to Santiago, and was right next to him. In a cheap move, Dominguez tried to actually shove their horses together, in an attempt to knock Santiago off. When that plan didn't work, Carlos resorted to something else. He reached into his sheath, and brought out his sword. He started swiping at Santiago, who tried his best to dodge. But once a swipe came too close, Santiago reared too hard to the right, which caused him and his horse to tumble to the ground.

Joaquin turned his head, and saw his friend on the ground. He suddenly stopped his horse. Carlos rode passed him.

"Santiago! You alright?" Joaquin called.

"Keep going, Joaquin!" Santiago called back, getting to his feet.

Realizing that he now had to catch Carlos, Joaquin kicked Toronado's ribs, making him run once more. Santiago climbed back on to his own horse and took off after Joaquin.

With Carlos now in the lead, Joaquin thought of a way to slow him down. As he rode, he reached into his pocket, and brought out his sling shot and a rock. Once he got close enough, he shot it, sending to rock to the back of Carlos' horse.

When it hit, the horse whinnied in pain, and stood on its hind hooves, causing Carlos to fall backward, and to the ground.

"Yes!" Joaquin said triumphantly.

Toronado passed where Carlos had fallen, putting Joaquin in the lead once again. Carlos groaned as Santiago passed him as well.

Joaquin's and Santiago's horses were now neck and neck of each other as they neared the entrance of the town.

"You take the bank, I've got the mayor's hacienda!" Joaquin said.

* * *

At the cliff side, Esmeralda fought Ana, over stabbing her husband. Alejandro continued with William, and Elena fought with Jorge and Enrique.

"I will make you pay, bitch." Esmeralda said coldly to Ana.

"I've been paying all my life. Now, it's your turn."

Their fight carried on. Just nonstop action.

* * *

In town, Joaquin and Santiago had finally gotten there. They had 5 minutes left. When they got to the bank, Santiago jumped off of his horse, while it was still moving. He was in _that_ much of a hurry. Joaquin kept riding, headed for the mayor's hacienda.

Santiago ran inside the bank, which was of course full of people. They all looked at him with confusion in their eyes. After wondering why everyone had been staring at him, Santiago realized why. He was still dressed as Zorro.

"It's Zorro..." a man said.

Santiago didn't have time for this. He stood there, looking around the place for the bomb. It would be in a place no one would look.

"Get him!" someone declared.

Out of nowhere, Santiago had himself tackled to the ground by almost everyone in the bank. That's_ right_. Zorro was now a fugitive. These people were trying to apprehend him. Santiago struggled, and groaned, as everyone tried to hold him to the floor. As he looked to the ceiling, he noticed something. On a connecting beam that went across the ceiling, there rested something red. It looked like it had been put there to be hidden. It was the bomb!

Santiago jerked his hand free from the crowd, stood up and reached for his Zorro whip around his waist. When he got it, he shot it up to the beam, and it wrapped perfectly around the bomb. Santiago pulled it down, and the people glared at it, wondering what it was.

_2:16...2:15..._

The crowd then realized that it was a bomb. Oh, no. Zorro had come there to kill them all.

But rather than detonate the explosive, Zorro clicked a switch on the back, and it turned off the clock.

Santiago sighed in relief. He'd gotten there in time. No one in there tried to tackle him again. They just looked at him, as if he had just redeemed Zorro's name. Santiago's relief vanished when he looked out the window and saw Carlos go by on his horse, apparently on his way to stop Joaquin.

* * *

Inside of the mayor's hacienda, he called for a speech, and took the stand.

"People, thank you all for coming here today, and joining in our celebration!"

The audience applauded.

"I know that the disappearance of Zorro has halted our plan to arrest him. But, I will assure you that we will make finding Zorro our highest priority."

This earned more applause from the audience. The man was just simply telling them what they wanted to hear. The authorities were really even looking for Zorro. They had no idea where to _start_ looking.

Outside, at the back of the hacienda, near the wall, Joaquin found the time bomb. As he sat on his knees, he tried to find out where to disarm it.

…_.:48...:47...:46_

Unknown to Joaquin, that from behind him, Carlos had his sword out, ready to stab him_. _

"It's over de la Vega." Carlos said, causing Joaquin to turn to see him.

Dominguez prepared to strike, but at the last second, he was tackled to the ground by Santiago. They began to wrestle, while Joaquin watched them. Carlos punched Santiago in the face, and stomach. Joaquin looked back at the clock on the dynamite, and didn't know what to do.

…_.:22...:21...:20...:19..._

"You can't stop this, don't you understand that?!" Carlos yelled.

He punched Santiago once again, and held his sword to the young man's chest.

"Why don't you just die?" Carlos said.

Santiago closed his eyes and awaited his fate. This was it. He was going to die here.

The sound of a blade penetrating flesh was heard.

Santiago gasped. He opened his eyes.

But it was not him that had been stabbed. He looked up and saw Carlos with a blade through his chest. Joaquin thrust the blade back out, and Dominguez fell to the ground.

The two boys stared at each other.

"Thanks." Santiago said.

Joaquin simply nodded. They had saved each others lives.

"The bomb." Santiago urged.

Their attention was again turned to the explosive.

…_.:05...:04...:03..._

As the clock reached :03, Joaquin picked it up and quickly deactivated it.

They both sighed in huge relief. The bomb threat had been averted.

"We did it." Santiago exhaled.

"Yeah." Joaquin said. "We'd better get back."

They knew that the fight with La Liga was still going on, so they mounted their horses, and went back the way they had came.

* * *

Back at the cliff side, the battle had moved to the inside of the abandoned building. The legends of La Liga's stamina must've been true, because William, Esmeralda, Jorge, and Enrique were still going strong, while Alejandro, Elena and Ana were nearly out of energy.

After a few more minutes, they found themselves backed against a wall.

"...What do we do?" Ana whispered.

"I have an idea, follow my lead." Alejandro whispered back to them.

He turned and opened the door to where the prisoner cell was, and the duel continued down the steps. As they kept fighting, and moved closer and closer to the jail cell, Elena and Ana quickly figured out what Alejandro had planned. As the fight progressed into the jail cell, all 7 of them were inside.

"Now!" Alejandro yelled.

In that instant, he flipped forward, Elena ran, and Ana somersaulted out of the jail cell. Before the final members of La Liga could follow them, Ana shut bars, locking Esmeralda, Enrique, Jorge and William in there.

The fighting was done. They had defeated La Liga.

Esmeralda and William tugged at the bars, fruitlessly.

"Let us out!" Esmeralda demanded.

Elena and Alejandro hugged, tightly. They sighed in relief.

Ana looked towards the entrance, and her eyes widened.

"Alejandro?" she said, nervously.

The rest of them looked on and saw Augusto, still alive, but barely, standing there, walking towards them, with another bomb!

"Hahaha. You...l-lose...de la Vega." he said. He coughed up a bit of blood.

The wick on the dynamite was burning, and Augusto kept laughing.

"Let's get out of here! Now!" Alejandro yelled.

Quickly, he, Elena, and Ana ran past Augusto, who was sill laughing. The others in the jail cell continued to struggle to get out, but it was useless.

When they got outside, Alejandro knew that their only chance for survival was to cover somewhere. He and Elena prepared to jump off the cliff side, when they turned and saw Ana sitting near her father.

"Ana! Come on!" Elena called.

"I can't leave him!" Ana said back.

Her father was miraculously still alive, but he only had minutes from death.

"Dad, come on. Get up."

"Leave me here, Ana. Go."

"No! Come on. Move!" she ordered.

She carried his arm over her shoulder and helped him walk towards the end of the cliff.

Inside the building, the wick had less than half an inch. La Liga frantically tried to escape the jail cell. They were all screaming.

Outside, Alejandro and Elena jumped off the cliff, and landed into the ocean.

"Jump!" Ana said to her father.

They landed into the sea just in time for...

_BOOM!_

The building exploded into thousands of pieces. La Liga was defeated at last.


	19. Chapter 19

A few minutes later, Santiago and Joaquin arrived on their horses back to the cliff side. They noticed that the building had been completely demolished and destroyed.

"What happened?" Joaquin asked.

"I don't know."

They trotted their horses a bit further, and saw their families near the cliff. They were soaking wet. Alejandro and Elena were standing, while Ana cradled Miguel on the ground. After they dismounted, Santiago and Joaquin ran over to them. They took off their masks.

"Dad!" Santiago called, worried. When he got to them, he dropped to his knees. "What happened?"

"It was Augusto." Alejandro said, ashamed.

"I am so sorry, Santiago." Elena said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Miguel was just minutes away from dying. He breathed in slowly.

"Is it over?" he asked.

Ana nodded.

"It's over." she said.

"Kids..." he panted. "I'm sorry."

"What?" Ana asked.

"I never meant for your lives to turn out this way. You both should have grown up like any other child should. With a real home. And I took that away from you."

Tears began to form in Ana's eyes again. Santiago tried not to cry as well.

"Dad..." he said.

"Anamaria." Miguel cupped her cheek in his hand. "You are so beautiful and strong...I know that you must probably hate me after all that I've put you through...but I love you."

"Don't say that. I could never hate you." Ana said through her tears. "You're the best father in the whole world."

By now, Elena was crying too. It was literally taking everything Alejandro had not to.

"Santiago...my son..." Miguel continued, taking Santiago's hand. "I'm so proud of you. You've grown into a much wiser man than me. I hope you can make the best choices you can for you and your sister."

"Dad, I..." Santiago was losing his ability to speak.

"Alejandro. Elena. Joaquin...thank you all, for everything you've done for my family."

"Thank you, my friend." Alejandro said, softly.

He reached his hand down, and shook Miguel's. The looked they exchanged each other was a look of trust, and friendship.

Miguel started to breathe slower. Santiago and Ana knew that his time was coming.

"We love you, Dad." Santiago said.

"...I...love...you..."

Miguel closed his eyes, and his body went limp.

Santiago couldn't hold it anymore. He began to weep. Joaquin got to his knees as Ana cried, and held her in his arms.

A tear then dropped from Alejandro's eye. It had been the first time he cried since his brother had died.

* * *

The next morning, in his room, Santiago packed a suitcase on his bed with his belongings in it. He paused for a moment, and thought about what his father had said. It really was necessary to think about what was best for Ana now.

Speak of the devil, Ana walked into the room to see her brother. She looked confused when she saw that he had packed his things.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Santiago sighed. "I'm leaving."

"What?"

"I've already told Alejandro. I'm going, and you're staying here."

"Santiago...what are you saying?"

He closed his suitcase and placed it on the ground.

"Is this about Dad's death?" she asked.

"No. This has nothing to do with that."

"What, then? Where are you going?"

"I don't know. Guess, I'll just pick up where I left off."

"Without me?"

"...Yes."

"Why?"

Santiago didn't really want to explain. He just picked up his suitcase and exited the room.

"I've already decided." he said, as Ana followed him down the stairs.

"What? Now that Dad dies, you're leaving me too?" Ana said.

"I told you, it's not about Dad. It's about you."

Santiago kept walking. He and Ana walked out the front door, and to the front of the hacienda.

"Me? How is this about me?" Ana asked.

When they got to the front, standing there was Alejandro, Elena and Joaquin. They were accompanied by Santiago's horse. Ana began to put the pieces together.

"Wait. You were gonna leave without telling me? Without _any_ of you telling me?" she asked.

Santiago sighed, looked over at the de la Vega's, then took Ana to the side.

"Are you trying to get rid of me? Is that it? Am I a burden to you?" Ana asked, looking for a guilt trip.

"You know that's not gonna work on me, Ana." Santiago said.

"If you're leaving, I'm going with you."

"No. You're not."

"Why are you leaving?"

Santiago sighed again. It was killing him to say this.

"Because, you deserve a life. You don't belong out there on the road."

"How dare you tell me that? I've been on the road just as long as you have."

"Yeah, but you have a family here now. You have a place to call home."

Ana still didn't get it.

"_You're_ my family, Santiago. My place is with you." she said.

"No, Ana. Your place is here, with them. With _him_."

They looked over to the de la Vega's. Specifically Joaquin. When she thought about it, Ana really didn't want to leave.

"I don't understand why you don't want to stay." she complained.

"La Liga's gone. Now, we're free. To go and live wherever and however we want, and you know what? I want another adventure." Santiago said. "I can't stay here forever. I still want to see everything that Dad couldn't show us."

Wrestling with her emotions, and rational thought, Ana was at a loss for words.

"If I gave you the choice, would you stay or go?" Santiago asked.

Ana frowned. She understood what he meant now. Apparently Santiago was fine with being on his own. He had just wanted a life for his sister. And now that she had one, she didn't need him anymore.

Ana could do nothing but hug her brother. It lasted a few seconds before they walked to the de la Vega's.

Joaquin and Santiago's hands embraced, and they gave each other a bro-hug.

"Good luck out there." Joaquin said. Santiago nodded to him.

"You're definitely your father's son." he said.

He turned to Alejandro, and shook his hand.

"You are always welcome here, Santiago."

"Thank you."

He then turned to Elena, and almost felt like crying. She gave him a small smile. It was clear that Santiago was going to miss her the most of all. He brought her into a tight hug which lasted a good ten seconds. He looked at her and smiled.

"Bye." he said.

"Goodbye, Santiago." she replied softly.

Ana went to her brother again, and hugged him once more. He kissed her forehead, and nodded to her.

Santiago mounted his horse, and began to trot off.

Joaquin put his arm around Ana's shoulder as they watched him go.

Before leaving, Santiago looked to his family, and gave them a final smile. They returned it.

"Guess this must have been Zorro's toughest challenge, huh?" Santiago said.

"His toughest, and his last." Alejandro said. Elena looked at him, surprised.

Santiago smiled again, and waved. Everyone waved back. Santiago made his horse whinny before turning, and rode away. When he got to a far enough distance, he raised his sword to the sky, while making his horse stand on its hind legs. Everyone smiled at the final goodbye. Santiago beckoned his horse to run, and with that, the steed bolted across the desert into the horizon.

As they watched him go, Joaquin looked to Ana.

"Will you be alright?" he asked.

Ana nodded and smiled. "Yeah. I'll be fine."

It was the truth. Even though Ana would miss her brother, she was actually a lot happier than she had been since before she could even remember.

Once Santiago was out of sight, Elena turned to Alejandro.

"What do you mean this was Zorro's 'last' challenge?" she asked.

"Well, with La Liga gone, it looks like California will be able to stand on its own feet for a while."

That must've been the best thing Alejandro had ever said to Elena. She had been wanting him to give up his responsibilities as Zorro for a long time. She put her hands on Alejandro's face and kissed him.

"Oh, get a room." Joaquin groaned.

"Mm-mm." Ana cleared her throat.

Joaquin looked to her, and she smiled. Their faces got close, and they kissed as well.

There was just one last thing for Zorro to do.


	20. Chapter 20

The mayor soon received a letter from Zorro stating that La Liga had been planning to tear California apart, and had framed him for the assassination attempt of Governor Johnson. The mayor declared that he needed more evidence. The discovery of a young boy with an L tattoo on his wrist helped the note's story, but everything was still inconclusive. Zorro was more or less exonerated among the locals, however, after many of them claimed to see him save their lives by diffusing a bomb in the bank built by the Dominguez family, who had coincidentally disappeared.

Ana continued living in California with the de la Vega's. She kept training with Joaquin, but for fun, rather than obligation. She no longer felt the need to steal, but I'd still check for my wallet after passing her on the street. Ana felt free, and she was happy. As was Joaquin. On some nights, they still sneaked out, and rode Toronado across the desert.

Elena and Alejandro's love grew deeper than before. Alejandro had a new outlook on trust, and felt that his duty should never impede him from having a relationship with his family. He tried as hard as he could to get closer to Joaquin. They began to spend more time together, and found out each other's similar interests. Elena and Ana grew close as well. She really became the surrogate mother Ana's brother saw in her.

They held a small funeral for Miguel, hosted by Padre Felipe. Alejandro buried with him, the medallion that had been given to his brother by Zorro so many years ago.

Alejandro never felt the need to return to his duties as the Fox, but he would've been ready if he ever had to.

Zorro, was gone, but not forgotten. Although the public continued to see him as a hero, the authorities still viewed him as an outlaw vigilante, and continued their search for him. No one ever saw him again, but some people swear that somewhere close to California, someone had carved Z's into walls. Not necessarily taking over for Alejandro, but just reminding everybody that Zorro is out there.

You know Zorro. He could be anyone at all, and should there ever come a time when he is needed again, he will rise.

* * *

**THE END**

* * *

**Author's Note: Thank you for reading my story. It was truly a joy to write it, although it was definitely more of a challenge for me than anything else I have written on Fanfiction. I wanted to give it the feel of a movie, so keeping it consistent with the previous films was a must. I came up with the idea for this in early 2011, and understood quickly that it would take a considerable amount of time and effort to produce a satisfactory continuation of the Banderas films. I hope the time I took in structuring the story is evident in the writing. There was a time where I even considered not writing it at all, as I thought that a good enough story would be too complex for my talents to convey correctly. Fortunately, I thought of a story I was comfortable with, and convinced myself to devote the time to do it. Anyway, without giving myself too much credit, I really must say that the source of my inspiration was Christopher Nolan. It was the first teaser trailer for The Dark Knight Rises that influenced my interest in writing a sequel to The Legend of Zorro. In case anyone was wondering, yes, the title of my story is most definitely inspired by The Dark Knight Rises. Anyway, before I continue rambling on, I want to thank all of the readers who enjoyed my story. It was a challenge to write, but I'd like to believe it paid off in the end. Thank you again, and please review.**

**The Rise of Zorro: Written from April-July 2012.**


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